Fondazione Antonio Ratti

The Most Beautiful Kunsthalle in the World


PROJECT
23 October 2010–19 June 2012
FAR – Villa Sucota

The Most Beautiful Kunsthalle in the World was an international research project developed between 2010 and 2012 among curators, critics, historians of art, artists, and professionals from diverse disciplinary fields and contexts, in a debate about the exhibition practices of contemporary art in the beginning to the 21st century.

The project was developed by Fondazione Antonio Ratti together with the Camera di Commercio di Como (within the initiative Laboratorio Como) with the collaboration of Centro ASK (Art, Science, Knowledge) of University Bocconi of Milan and of the Graduate Program in Visual and Performing Arts (Clasav) of the University IUAV of Venice. The project was under the scientific responsibility of Marco De Michelis, with the general coordination of Filipa Ramos.

The Most Beautiful Kunsthalle in the World departed from the recognition of a peculiar condition of crisis that demanded a critical revision of the practices, a redefinition of the identities of the different institutions and protagonists, a brave reflection upon the changing relations among art, society, and public and on the moving borders of the current territories of contemporary art and its interdisciplinary relations.

Within a time frame of two years, from the Fall of 2010, The Most Beautiful Kunsthalle in the World developed an exhaustive reflection upon the international artistic system, its protagonists, institutions, territories, and its specific and controversial features. The themes ranged from the analysis of the diverse models of exhibition spaces and their characteristics; the relation between economy and art; the definition and identity of the figure of the curator; the publications of art and other questions related to all the aspects of doing and producing exhibitions. Particular attention was given to the Italian panorama and its peculiarities. The project consisted of 21 public events, each dedicated to a specific problem - theoretical, historical, critical, operational, or organizational - with the participation of specialists, invited to share a specific case study and to reflect on some more general aspects of their professional experience.

Final report, Download (PDF)
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