MAXXI ARTE COLLECTION. TRIDIMENSIONALE

 MAXXI ARTE COLLECTION. TRIDIMENSIONALE
Maurizio Mochetti, Juan Muñoz, Remo Salvadori
Thomas Schütte, Franz West
+ a site-specific installation by
Lucy + Jorge Orta “Fabulae Romanae”
realised with the support of Ermenegildo Zegna and curated by Maria Luisa Frisa
21 March - 23 September 2012
www.fondazionemaxxi.it
Rome, 21 March 2012. Following A propos of Marisa Merz (through to 6 January 2013), MAXXI Arte is
introducing a new presentation of its permanent collection. Tridimensionale (21 March - 23 September
2012) presents works by Maurizio Mochetti, Juan Muñoz, Remo Salvadori, Thomas Schütte and
Franz West on the terraces of the museum's first floor Gallery Three, along with a new installation by
Lucy+Jorge Orta, realised with the support of Ermenegildo Zegna.
Sculptures, installations and a video performance recount the multiple and diverse modes in which
contemporary artists relate to the third dimension, creating real and virtual spaces in continuity with or
breaking away from the great tradition of western plastic arts.
As Anna Mattirolo, director of MAXXI Arte says, “Tridimensionale derives from reflection on the
relationship between space and object, a fundamental element of contemporary artistic research. This
dialectical relationship is an essential point of reference for the artistic research of today. The exhibition
once again highlights the value of the museum’s permanent collection, essential to an understanding of
the twists and turns taken by artistic expressions of yesterday and today."
Tridimensionale tackles the deconstruction of the figure, presenting research based on the analysis of
geometric elements or the calling into question of monumental sculpture, through to the research of
recent years that revisits the ideas inherited from the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century
and translates them in renewed forms: sculpture is no longer a figurative representation and instead
encompasses space, making it part of the work.
The exhibition initially focuses on the works of Remo Salvadori (two of which is in the process of being
acquired through a donation: The Room of Verticals and Triad) and Maurizio Mochetti, which overturn
the meaning of the formal idiom underlying the Italian sculptural tradition. Salvadori – who has eight works
on show – punctuates space through a deconstruction of basic geometric principles, while Mochetti
defines a volume, of which the nature is intuited solely through the representation of its constitutional
elements. The work exhibited, Cylinder Two Discs of Light, from 1968, investigates the possibility of using
light to construct immaterial spaces and volumes.
The exhibition proceeds with three works by Juan Muñoz, Thomas Schütte and Franz West, which
instead represent a kind of research that has chosen to challenge 20th century sculpture without
foregoing forms in the round, albeit with new formal solutions. From the piece by Muñoz (Untitled, 1998),
who is part of that group of artists who from the 1980s reappropriated the human figure as an object of
representation, to that of Schütte (Bronzefrau n. 10, 2002), in which the positions of classical sculpture
are exaggerated in favour of a representation that highlights the formal disharmonies and through to West
(Untitled – yellow sculpture, 2003) who questions the concepts of finish and beauty associated with
sculpture and focuses on interaction with the surrounding space.
The exhibition concludes with Fabulae Romanae by Lucy+Jorge Orta, a new work that is mid-way
between performance and sculpture, commissioned by Ermenegildo Zegna and conceived for MAXXI,
curated by Maria Luisa Frisa.
As Gildo Zegna, CEO of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group says: “Fabulae Romanae by Lucy+Jorge Orta is
the first of the Special Projects by ZegnArt, an initiative that embraces in Italy and internationally those
activities supported by our group in the field of the contemporary visual arts and constitutes a successful
example of collaboration between and private company and a public institution. The aim of ZegnArt is to
bring together under a single umbrella a series of activities promoting contemporary art and culture that
as a business we intend to realize and with which as a family we have always felt a particular affinity.
Today, with ZegnArt, we have put in place the ground work for new thinking, new ties and opportunities
for dialogue with diverse worlds and interlocutors; the work becomes a chance for collaboration and
dialogue between people and working groups. If the Zegna spirit has always been pioneering and strongly
tied to work in terms of excellence and innovation, the ambition we have for ZegnArt is that of innovating
the model of cultural intervention, bringing to the encounter of different worlds a "reciprocity" that
becomes the keystone around which the future may be constructed.”
For some time, the works of the Ortas has embraced social, anthropological and philosophical issues.
The project for MAXXI (an installation and a video performance accompanied by the verses of Mario
Petrucci) is based on one of the most characteristic elements of their poetic: the tent, the hut, the dome as
a primordial form of sculptural construction, conceived as a shelter, capable of adapting to all places, but
also a symbolic and sacred form. Realised on the basis of suggestions offered by the city of Rome,
Fabulae Romanae is the crossroads on an ideal map defining new imaginary trajectories across the urban
fabric of Rome, thus enabling sculpture to leave the museum space and reappropriate the city.
MAXXI PRESS OFFICE - +39 06 322.51.78, [email protected]
MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts
Info: 06.399.67.350; [email protected] | www.fondazionemaxxi.it - www.romaexhibit.it
opening hours:
11.00 – 19.00 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday, Sunday)
11.00 – 22.00 (Saturday)
closed: Mondays, 1 May and 25 December
admission: €11,00 adults, € 8,00 concessions
PRESS OFFICE MAXXI - +39 06 322.51.78, [email protected]
PRESS OFFICE ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA - +39 02 422.091, [email protected]
PRESS OFFICE ZEGNART - Paola C. Manfredi Studio, Via Marco Polo 4, 20124 Milano
Tel. + 39 02 87.23.8000, Fax +39 02 87.23.8014, [email protected]
The press kit and images of the exhibition may be downloaded from the reserved area of the Fondazione
MAXXI site at http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it/?page_id=5176 inserting the password areariservatamaxxi.
MAXXI – NATIONAL MUSEOM OF XXI CENTURY ARTS , ROME
supported by
partner
technological partner
educational partner
institutional XXI
MAXXI ARTE COLLEZIONE. TRIDIMENSIONALE
ARTWORKS
• Maurizio Mochetti
Roma, 1940
Cilindro Due Dischi Di Luce
1968
Elastic cotton, projectors
Permanent Collection
Maurizio Mochetti began his research at the end of the 1960s with the representation of simple geometric elements
and works with a highly ‘object-like’ character, exasperated by the use of industrial materials. Mochetti’s work, often
characterised by the use of technical drawing, is akin to scientific research: his projects, often impossible to realise,
are born of the conviction that art can be expressed as a longing for increasingly more sophisticated
implementations of technique. Thus the work of art is not presented as a narrative that presupposes a possibility of
interpretation, but instead as functional to the verification of a theory hypothesised as certain. Mochetti is interested
in the possibility offered by light to construct immaterial spaces and volumes, directing himself towards the creation
of pieces able to adapt to the spaces in which they are displayed. In this manner the artwork is not crystallised in a
definite image: its dematerialization offers the possibility of remaining immune to phenomena of fetishizing the
artistic object.
• Juan Muñoz
Madrid, 1953-Santa Eularia des Riu (Spagna), 2001
Untitled, 1998
Bronze
Permanent Collection Gian Ferrari Donation
Juan Muñoz belongs to a group of artists that, beginning in the 1980s, recovered the human figure as the object of
representation after it had been prohibited by the minimalist and post-minimalist research of the previous two
decades. Untitled presents diverse connections with the series Many Times, comprised of figures with an Asiatic
physiognomy, reminiscent of the terracotta soldiers of the first Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang. This work is part
of a vaster research initiated by the artist in the 1990s and entitled Conversation Pieces, in which sculptures
dialogue with and smile at one another.
• Lucy + Jorge Orta
Lucy, Sutton Coldfield (Regno Unito), 1966 -Jorge, Rosario (Argentina), 1953
Spirits, 2012
Diverse textiles, wool, cotton, leather, wood, armatures, steel structures,
nickel, embroidery, glass, wheels, reclaimed garments, fiberglass, epoxy paint
Courtesy the artists and Ermenegildo Zegna
Fabulae Romanae – storyboard, 2012
Pencil, pigment ink, water colour on paper
Courtesy the artists
Domes Dwelling, 2012
Silkscreen print on various textiles, fiberglass armatures, steel structures, glass beads, webbing, blankets,
clips, flags, suites, second hand clothes
Courtesy the artists and Ermenegildo Zegna
Fabulae Romanae, 2012
Video projection
Courtesy the artists and Ermenegildo Zegna
assistants Studio Orta: Charlotte Law, Roxane Andres, Susan Leen, Florian Misslin & alumni from London
College of Fashion: Chloé Gayet, Mio Jin, Lara Torres, Oliver Ruuger, Sum Yu Li
curatorial research assistant: Camilla Palestra
communication assistant: Zoe Beck
Film credits: directed by David Bickerstaff with the assistance of Simona Piantieri. filmed and edited by David
Bickerstaff. Poetry by Mario Petrucci, narration by Clare Corbett and Aldo Alessio
The installation Fabulae Romanae belongs to that interdisciplinary dimension of the coexistence between art,
fashion, design, architecture and poetry, recounting the complexity of our contemporary imaginations. For some
time, the Orta’s research has been moving in a direction along which social, anthropological and philosophical
issues encounter the critical dimension of art. Fabulae Romanae is born of a theme dear to their poetic: the tent,
the hut, the dome, interpreted as nomadic form of shelter - and thus capable of adapting to context - and as the
symbolic and sacred form par excellence. This experience is amplified to the dimensions of a new poetic, in which
the artists imagine a series of figures/spirits. With their complex and evocative costumes, they qualify themselves
as the representatives and protagonists of the life and sentiments of the city, assuming responsibility for the noises
and experiences of daily urban life. The city is crossed and interpreted as a space of multi-ethnic and
comprehensive hospitality, where the trajectories of beauty unite with those of the good and the useful. This same
direction is pursued in the performance, set to the rhythm of verses by the poet Mario Petrucci, in which the leading
role is played by the Spirits.
• Franz West
Vienna, 1947
Senza titolo (scultura gialla), 2003
Papier-mâché, metal, canvas, acrylic paint
Permanent Collection
This piece, with its apparently unfinished appearance, is realised in papier-mâché. The artist proposes a reflection
on the value of this material, playing with the use of a poor and traditional technique, though refusing the figurative
representation normally associated with it. Totally amorphous and unidentifiable, the work leaves the spectator
entirely free to interpret its meaning and, at the same time, to question the very concepts of finiteness and beauty
commonly associated with sculpture, in favour of a search for interaction with the surrounding space.
• Remo Salvadori
Cerreto Guidi (Firenze), 1947
1995-2000
Copper, steel
Permanent Collection
Long-term loan from Roberto Lombardi and Filippo Massimo Lancellotti - Donation forthcoming
Triade
2001
Ceramic, watercolour
Permanent Collection
Long-term loan from Roberto Lombardi and Filippo Massimo Lancellotti
Donation forthcoming
Continuo infinito presente
1985-2007
Steel
Permanent Collection
Long-term loan from the Christian Stein Gallery
Nel momento
2009
Lead
Permanent Collection
Long-term loan from the Christian Stein Gallery
Nel momento
1999
Lead
Collection of the artist
Alveare
2011-2012
Copper
Collection of the artist
Attraverso
2006-2012
Glass, gold leaf
Private collection
Lente liquida
1998
Water, glass, cork
Permanent Collection
Long-term loan from the Christian Stein Gallery
The works of Remo Salvadori represent a process of internally verifying the possibilities of visualizing reality: in his
research the three-dimensional form constitutes a possibility of expressing the nature and substance of the
\momento, a series of modern origami realised by cutting and folding lead. The play of the full and the empty
returns again in Alveare, an example of how Salvadori, through a mimesis of natural forms, arrives at the definition
of a base module that is repeated in continuous variations. La stanza dei verticali uses three sheets of copper to
trace out Pythagoras’ Theorem on the floor, while other elements in copper vertically project the drawing. The
research into the energetic potentialities of the pure metals such as copper, lead and iron, find their ideal
conclusion in Attraverso, formed of a sheet of glass that recalls the idea of the spy-glass - through which the gallery
space can be viewed - and Lente liquida, another reflection on how the eye informs itself when viewing the world
through elements we consider transparent, such as water or glass.
• Thomas Schütte
Oldenburg (Germania), 1954
Bronzefrau n. 10, 2002
Bronze, rusted steel, fabric\
Permanent Collection
This work is the result of a series of sketches realised at the end of the 1990s in which the artist drew a group of
small feminine figures. The Bronzefrau (bronze woman) series analyses the body through a sequence that appears
to be a critical homage to the formal problems of ‘posing’ present in the work of sculptors such as Aristide Maillol
and Henry Moore. Classical positions are forced to the point of losing the sensual and persuasive qualities that
have always characterised the iconographic subject of the female nude, in favour of a representation that clearly
exposes a number of formal disharmonies.
Fabulae Romanae di Lucy+Jorge Orta
di Maria Luisa Frisa
Fabulae Romanae, a project by Lucy and Jorge Orta
… but I stress/everything upwards/strained and tested
between – between/man and woman or/earth and sky
as the Roman/awaiting that/Imperial thumb
in its Coliseum/suspended I/live or die. (Mario Petrucci )
The Fabulae Romanae project, commissioned by Ermenegildo Zegna and specifically conceived for MAXXI,
generates from the seminal art practice of the contemporary artists Lucy + Jorge Orta and it operates within
that interdisciplinary space where art, fashion, design, architecture and poetry co-exist, thus becoming a
sentinel of the opening scenarios and complexity of our times.
Orta’s artistic research has consistently pointed in the direction of social, anthropological and philosophical
themes, underlining art’s critical force in recounting and addressing the emergencies of contemporary living.
Their body of work has engaged and debated on topics of daily life such as journey, nomadism, mobility,
shelter, survival, living conditions, sustainable development, thus evoking universal themes that range from
the value of roots and origins, to the relevance of community and the respect of human rights. Lucy + Jorge
Orta build (in works like Refuge Wear or Body Architecture) shelters, clothes, cocoons that transform the
relation of the individual with the surrounding environment.
Orta envisioned the MAXXI project on invitation of Ermenegildo Zegna, in the context of the company’s
involvement in the field of arts and coherent with its social engagement, as a message of interconnection
between ethics and aesthetics. Fabulae Romanae originates from the most cherished form of the artists duo’s
language: the tent, the hut, the dome meant as nomadic system of shelter, easy to adapt to any
circumstance, but at the same time a symbolic and sacred form by definition. At the same time, Fabulae
Romanae represents an extension and new direction of the artists’ expression by creating and outlining a
series of characters - Spirits - that though their garments embody the life and the emotions of the city. They
become messengers of the noises and experiences of the urban daily life.
The project assumes the meaning of “homage” to Rome, but it is also a reinterpretation of the city through the
Domes Dwellings and the Spirits - wearable sculptures on display in the museum - and the movement of
these elements through the film’s storyboard.
The installation addresses MAXXI (the museum as a contemporary symbol of Rome) as the central point of a
metaphorical map outlining new trajectories through the city. The project inputs grow into new paths, both
physical and cerebral: a novel network of relationships between ancient beauty and current shapes; between
living habits that in a fluid and ever changing way reinterpret the ancient urban structure. The city is lived and
interpreted as a welcoming space multiethnic and comprehensive, where the trajectories of beauty, goodness
and convenience meet. This is also the direction taken by the performance, where the Spirits move,
accompanied by the poems of Mario Petrucci, wearing the complex garments, that together with the domes
are a fundamental part of the installation.
ARCUS: INTERVENING IN SUPPORT OF
CULTURAL HERITAGE
In the month of February 2004, the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities was responsible for the constitution of Arcus SpA, a limited company
devoted to supporting art, culture and the performing arts, in accordance with Law No. 291 of 16 October 2003. 291. The company capital is wholly
underwritten by the Ministry of the Economy, while the company’s day-to-day activities are based on the programmes established by annual decrees
adopted by the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities – who also exercises the shareholder rights – together with the Minister for Infrastructures.
Arcus may also develop independent projects.
Arcus’s declared aim is that of providing innovative support for significant and ambitious projects within the world of cultural heritage and activities and
its possible interrelations with the country’s strategic infrastructures.
Within the ambit of Arcus’s mission , supporting projects entails identifying important initiatives, contributing to the completion of planning, intervening
in organizational and technical aspects, participating – where appropriate or necessary – in the financing of the project, monitoring its development and
contributing to its successful outcome
It is important that Arcus’s modus operandi is clearly understood, as explained above: the company intervenes to provide organizational and financial
support for significant projects, but in no way is it comparable to an agency for the distribution of funding, nor may it be numbered among the
“scattershot” distributors of public or private funds.
Arcus is, therefore, an original instrument for the support and launching of significant and innovative projects within the panorama of Italian culture.
Economic support, where provided, must be seen as wholly instrumental within the ambit of a cultural project that is conceptually valid and operationally
shared.
In more detail, Arcus provides assistance for initiatives relating, for example:

to the establishment of projects for the restoration, redevelopment and improved fruition of the cultural heritage;

to the preservation of the landscape and cultural heritage through actions and interventions also designed to mitigate the impact of
existing or forthcoming infrastructures;

to support the programming, monitoring and evaluation of interventions in the cultural heritage sector;

to promote planning within the cultural heritage and activities sector and that of the performing arts;

to identify and support projects valorizing and protecting cultural heritage through interventions with significant
technological contents;

to support projects relating to cultural tourismin
thebroadest sense of the term;

to promote the birth and constitution of cultural
catchment areas in relation to emblematic examples of cultural
heritage within the ambit of an integrated and systemic vision capable of linking
local cultural heritage, infrastructure, tourism, allied industries and transport;

to intervene in the broad-based sector comprising initiatives designed to render the cultural heritage fully accessible
to the differently able.
To achieve its aims Arcus draws on resources detailed in article 60 of Law 289 of 27 December 2002 (Financial Law 2003).
The legislation provides for 3% of the funding for infrastructures being devoted to expenses relating to interventions
safeguarding and in favour of cultural heritage and activities. Arcus is identified as
the recipient structure for these funds. Furthermore, in accordance with article 3 of Law
No. 43 of 31 March 2005, the above-mentioned percentage is increased annually by a
further 2%. Moreover, the company may receive finances provided by the European
Union, the stateand other public and private bodies.
Arcus also works to bring potential stakeholders into contact with the various projects.
When necessary, therefore, the company contacts foundations with banking origins or otherwise,
local authorities, exponents of local bodies and civic society, the universities and private individuals in
order to aggregate around the initiatives increasing resources and coordinated financing.
Arcus’s ambitio us project is therefore that of becoming the “glue” that renders operative the
systemic capacity for the promotion and planned support of initiatives designed to enhance the
cultural heritage and activities, with a view to ever better conservation, fruition and valorization.
By taking appropriate measures, Arcus favours the necessary convergence of the various
stakeholders, thus contributing to the success of the various cultural projects identified.
Arcus S.p.A.
Via Barberini, 86 - 00187 Roma Tel. 06 42089 Fax 06 42089227 E-mail:
[email protected]
BMW Group
Relazioni Istituzionali e Comunicazione
BMW Group and the commitment to culture in the world
and in Italy.
BMW Italia a partner of the MAXXI.
The BMW cultural program covers more than 100 international-scale projects and has been one of
the key elements of its corporate communications for almost forty years. This commitment to culture
is concentrated on modern and contemporary art, as well as on classical music, jazz, architecture, and
design. BMW AG recently announced a long-term arrangement to cooperate with the Guggenheim
Foundation, which will take the form of an itinerant mobile structure, the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a
public space for dialogue on urban life themes. Over the years, artists of the caliber of Gerhard
Richter, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson, Thomas Demand, and Jeff Koons have
collaborated with BMW. In addition, the company has commissioned architects of international
renown, including Karl Schwanzer, Zaha Hadid, and the Coop Himmelb(l)au cooperative for the
construction of major buildings and production facilities. In all the cultural activities in which it is
involved, BMW guarantees absolute creative liberty to its partners – a condition that is essential not
only for the creation of forward-looking works of art, but also for the development of pioneering
innovations in a successful company.
The BMW Group in Italy represents an important economic player in our country. Being the leading
premium automobile manufacturer means being excellent in every single process, in every activity
both internal and external; it also obligates the company to go beyond its commercial confines and
play an active and integrated role in the social fabric of which it is a part. For this reason, the BMW
Group gets involved in some of the most exclusive shows, concerts, and festivals. Indeed, being a
player in the social realm means recognizing the importance played in the country by the cultural and
historical heritage and it means supporting those initiatives that can contribute to keeping that
heritage alive. In this regard, for over ten years BMW Group Italia has been working alongside the
F.A.I. (Italian Fund for the Environment), not to mention its collaboration since 2002 with the
prestigious Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
This context also embraces the partnership with the MAXXI, the National Museum of the Arts of the
21st Century, a center of excellence and an interactive hub in which esthetic content of the
contemporary age is set out in radically innovative artistic forms, while remaining in continuity with
the modern art tradition. A great interest in art and architecture unite the BMW Group and the
MAXXI, whose architectural project was entrusted to Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, who also
designed the BMW plant in Leipzig. The principle of movement and of communications flow has
inspired both buildings, whose innovative materials blend creativity and technology evolution.
The social commitment of the BMW Group and its interest in medical research are also realized in
the partnership that began in 2002 with the Istituto Scientifico Universitario S. Raffaele in Milan.
The establishment of the BMW Research Unit – HSR, the research laboratory devoted to
Società regenerative medicine for the nervous system using adult stem cells, which was officially
BMW Italia S.p.A. inaugurated on 5 December 2008, is confirmation of this commitment.
Società del BMW Group
Per ulteriori informazioni:
Andrea Frignani
Sede
Via della Unione
Europea,1
I-20097 San Donato Milanese (MI)
Telefono
02-51610111
Telefax
02-51610222
Internet
www.bmw.it
www.mini.it
R.E.A. MI 1403223 N. Reg. Impr. MI 187982/1998 Codice fiscale 01934110154 Partita IVA Capitale sociale
5.000.000 di Euro i.v.
IT 12532500159
Public Relations
Tel.: 02.51610.164 Fax: 02.51610.416
E-mail: [email protected]
Contatti stampa: www.press.bmwgroup.com (comunicati e foto) e http://bmw.lulop.com (filmati)
The BMW Group
The BMW Group is one of the most successful manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles in the world with its
BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 24 production facilities in 13
countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries. The BMW Group’s global sales volume for the
2010 financial year amounted to approximately 1.46 million automobiles and over 98,000 motorcycles. The success
of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore
established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and
a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy. As a result of its efforts, the BMW
Group has been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last six years.
TELECOM ITALIA IN SUPPORT OF CULTURE AND INNOVATION In addition to offering technology platforms over which voice and data are transformed into advanced
telecommunication services, ICT solutions and leading-edge media, Telecom Italia contributes to Italy’s
development and growth by supporting a large number of activities and projects to disseminate culture
and innovation.
In the figurative arts, Telecom Italia is the technology partner of M AXXI, Italy’s National Museum of 21stcentury arts in Rome, to which the company supplies its leading-edge communications infrastructure.
Telecom Italia has partnered with the Accadem ia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Auditorium
Parco della M usica, Rome’s two largest cultural hubs, by developing projects dedicated to some of the
most interesting events on these organizations’ programmes, offering an opportunity to follow events via
web streaming, and providing exclusive additional digital content.
In theatre and contemporary dance, Telecom Italia actively supports the international Rom aeuropa
Festival, helping to stage visions of the future and the technological vanguard through a selection of
events under the “Metamondi” banner.
The company supports the M antua Festival of Literature, helping to raise awareness amongst
readers about new digital reading technologies, and the Festival delle Città Im presa, held in the
Triveneto region, where the company helps to arrange meetings with internationally-prominent
personalities from the worlds of economics and multimedia.
As it pursues its vocation for innovation, every year Telecom Italia takes part in the Genoa Festival of
Science, with which it has set up the festivalscienzalive.it project, and the Rom e Festival
of Sciences. Both of these events enable the public to get up to speed with major scientific issues via
interactive installations and through conferences with internationally-renowned figures.
To mark the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of Italian unity, Telecom Italia is one of the lead
partners with the Com itato Italia 150. The company is contributing to the celebrations by providing the
Committee with leading-edge web-based and advanced communications technologies, in addition to
running a number of specific ventures.
Telecom Italia Press Office +39 06 3688 2610
http://www.telecomitalia.com/media
The Game of Lotto in support of art and culture in Italy
Il Gioco del Lotto (Lotto game) has a centuries-old tradition. During the course of history, in fact, it has
gone from clandestinity to being celebrated, opposed but then legalized because it brought in revenue
destined, in part, to works of piety and public good.
The first reliable news about Il Gioco del Lotto dates back to 1620 in Genoa. Later on in the second
half of the XVII century, the "Lotto della Zitella/Lotto of the Old Maid" became popular. This version of
the game also became famous throughout Europe. In the State of the Church, Il Gioco del Lotto
enjoyed alternating fortune. On 9 December 1731, in the framework of the interventions to support
public financing, it was definitively institutionalized. The first drawing held on 14 February 1732 in the
square of the Campidoglio was a huge success. This newfound availability of money allowed Pope
Clemente XII to promote urban renewal in Rome, with the construction among other things of Trevi
Fountain, the façade of St. John in Lateran, the Palazzo della Consulta al Quirinale and the
façade of St. John of the Florentines. The importance of the proceeds from Il Gioco del Lotto for
culturally important works was no less important in the following decades, rather it would be
consolidated with the extraordinary museum project promoted by the popes in Rome: the
establishment of the Vatican Museums in 1771. There were many other cities that benefited from
the revenue from Lotto such as the port of Ancona, the remodeling of the bridge of Tiberius in Rimini
and the rebuilding of the aqueduct in Perugia.
Subsequently, the historical ties between Il Gioco del Lotto and cultural heritage were definitively
consolidated in 1996 with the introduction of the second weekly drawing on Wednesday. A part of
the proceeds from the game was destined, on the basis of a three-year program, to the
Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activity for the recovery and conservation of our artistic,
cultural and landscape heritage (law no.662/96).
For several years, Il Gioco del Lotto has been involved in projects and activities in support of
initiatives characterized by educational and social values. For this reason, Il Gioco del Lotto has
linked its name to the most important cultural institutions with the desire to contribute and enrich the
community with quality initiatives. It was within the context of increasingly greater focus on activities
aimed at enhancing the territory that Il Gioco del Lotto in the past participated in the recovery of
places with significant social impact in the city of Rome. Today it has chosen to work alongside
important institutions such as the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Scuderie del Quirinale, Vittoriano,
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica di Palazzo Barberini and since its inauguration, MAXXI.
All these are only a few of the most significant examples of how Il Gioco del Lotto actively contributes
to the growth of Italian cultural life. For years, it has been committed to enhancing our artistic heritage
with promotional and communication initiatives aimed at bringing all citizens closer to their culture.
Lottomatica is the largest lottery operator in the world in terms of receipts and it is the leader in the gaming
sector in Italy. In its capacity as the exclusive concessionaire of the State, since 1993, the Company administers
the main lottery in the world, "Lotto", and since 2004, the Instant and Deferred lotteries. Lottomatica is
successfully continuing its growth strategy through the diversification of its game portfolio (Sports games,
entertainment equipment, Videolotteries, pari-mutuel betting), supplying all the relative technical services.
Taking advantage of its distribution network and significant processing expertise, Lottomatica also offers
automated payment services. The Company, of which the De Agostini Group is the majority shareholder,
distributes games and services through the most extensive real-time online network in Europe.