PRESS RELEASE
INTESA SANPAOLO: THE NEW MUSEUM OF THE GALLERIE D’ITALIA IN TURIN OPENS TO THE PUBLIC ON the 17th of MAY
In the presence of Intesa Sanpaolo’s top management and leading local institutions, the “Gallerie d’Italia – Turin” are inaugurated: five floors dedicated to photography and the Piedmontese Baroque.
The museum is the home of the Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto Archive and the pictorial cycle of the ancient Oratory of the Compagnia di San Paolo
The four museums in the Bank’s historic buildings – Milan, Naples, Turin and Vicenza – unite Italy through art and culture
Gallerie d’Italia – Turin, Museum of Intesa Sanpaolo, Piazza San Carlo 156
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Turin, 16 May 2022 – Intesa Sanpaolo today inaugurated the “Gallerie d’Italia – Turin”, the Group’s fourth museum, ten thousand square metres of exhibition space on five floors, of which three are underground, dedicated to photography and the Baroque in Palazzo Turinetti, Piazza San Carlo, the Bank’s historical base and registered office.
The Bank’s top management took part in the inauguration of Turin’s new museum: President Emeritus Giovanni Bazoli, Chairman Gian Maria Gros-Pietro and Carlo Messina, Managing Director and CEO, in the presence of the Mayor of Turin, Stefano Lo Russo, the President of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio, and other institutional authorities.
The architectural design of Michele De Lucchi – AMDL Circle has transformed the spaces of the historic building into a unique place where photography and video art will document and preserve images, events and reflections in order to promote issues linked to the development of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) sustainability.
The “Gallerie d’Italia – Turin” are also the new home of the Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto Archive – with around 7 million shots taken between the nineteen thirties and nineties by one of the leading agencies of Italian photojournalism - and exhibit a selection of works from the Group’s collections, including the pictorial cycle of the ancient Oratory of the Compagnia di San Paolo, owned by the Bank.
The opening of the Turin museum, in addition to the new site in Naples that will be opened to the public on the 21st of May with triple the current space, is a fundamental step by Intesa Sanpaolo in the promotion of culture in Italy and the enhancement of its artistic heritage, made up of 35,000 owned artworks, the economic value of which was entered in the 2017 financial statement at fair value.
The four museums of the Gallerie d’Italia – Milan, Naples, Turin and Vicenza – display distinctive common features and consolidate Intesa Sanpaolo’s museum network managed by the Bank’s Progetto Cultura, created to enhance the historical and artistic heritage brought together over the years in the Group. The sites are historic buildings that were formerly the Bank’s offices, which, in the restructuring work guided by the new requirements - including opening to the public, the protection and preservation of artworks, sustainability, full accessibility – retain the memory of their past functions.
The 2022 – 2025 Business Plan recently presented by the Managing Director and CEO Carlo Messina reinforces Intesa Sanpaolo’s commitment to culture with the opening of the museums of Turin and Naples and the expansion of the Bank’s two other museums in Milan and Vicenza, leading to the doubling by 2025 of the overall exhibition spaces of the Gallerie d’Italia – from 14,200 square metres to 30,000 square metres - and consolidating the Group’s position among the leading private cultural operators at the international level in terms of reputation, commitment and the size, quality and financial value of the collection, a commitment that is part of the Group’s ESG activities.
The new Turin museum will display temporary original exhibitions, commissioned from internationally renowned photographers, and will organise activities such as teaching for schools, scientific research, initiatives for social inclusion. Some of the spaces shall be available for events and citizens’ initiatives.
The museum
Entry to the new Gallerie d’Italia – Turin will be through the current entrance to the Bank’s courtyard, Piazza San Carlo 156, by means of a large monumental staircase that leads visitors to the underground exhibition spaces intended for exhibitions, which will become places for social interaction.
On the first underground floor, there are two teaching halls with modular spaces featuring a large window that overlooks the “Hall of the 300”, the historic hall where the Shareholders' General Meetings of the Sanpaolo-IMI Banking Institute were held before the construction of the Turin skyscraper. Here, temporary exhibitions will be hosted.
The second underground floor, where the ticket office is located, will be a place of communication and encounters, including for visiting schools, the hub of the museum where the public can decide which of the many possible routes to follow, depending on their choices and interests.
A “long wing” designed for classic photography leads to the rooms on the third underground floor where Intesa Sanpaolo’s Publifoto Archive is housed, which can be viewed by visitors through a large window. A large touchscreen panel will enable the Archive's digitised images to be consulted, made accessible in this way for public enjoyment. On this floor, one of the major distinctive features of the Turin Galleries will be located: a multimedia room (40 x 14 m), a real jewel of technology and innovation, equipped with seventeen 4k projectors able to imbue visitors with the feeling of literally being immersed in the images and the videos.
The tour is not limited to the underground spaces. Climbing back up to the ground floor, the public will find an open-air cloister bordered by Piazza San Carlo, Via XX Settembre and Via Santa Teresa, which will also lead to a new bookshop, a café and a restaurant.
On the Palace’s main floor, in the suite of rooms overlooking Piazza San Carlo, the museum tour curated by Fernando Mazzocca, Alessandro Morandotti and Gelsomina Spione will exhibit around forty works – paintings, sculptures, tapestries, furnishings – from the 14th to the 18th centuries, fitted out in accordance with the building’s late baroque ornamentation (door arches, wood panelling, mirrors); a dedicated room will also house the nine large canvases owned by the Bank created in the second half of the seventeenth century to decorate the ancient Oratory of the Compagnia di San Paolo, now destroyed. On the same floor, the historic "Sala Turinetti" will be used for events and citizens' initiatives.
Management of the Turin museum has been assigned to Michele Coppola, Intesa Sanpaolo’s Executive Director, Art, Culture and Heritage and Director of the Gallerie d'Italia, assisted by the Deputy Director, Antonio Carloni.
The two inaugural exhibitions
The display spaces will be inaugurated by the exhibition “The fragile wonder. A journey in changing nature” by Paolo Pellegrin – with the Patronage of the Piedmont Region and the City of Turin – a distinguished example of photographic reportage dedicated to the issue of climate change curated by Walter Guadagnini with the contribution of Mario Calabresi. The work is an original commission that saw the photographer engaged in countries such as Namibia, Iceland, Costa Rica and Italy in order to provide a personal interpretation through images of the relationship between humankind and the natural environment, a crucial contemporary issue.
The reflection provoked by Pellegrin’s images will be accompanied by the exhibition “From the war to the moon 1945-1969. Glimpses from the Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto Archive”, a selection of historical images from the Publifoto Archive curated by Giovanna Calvenzi and Aldo Grasso, which documents events from the Italian post-war economic miracle to the greatest modern human achievement, the moon landing. To understand modern Italy, diving into the past is more than ever appropriate in order to illustrate, step by step, what the country was and what it became in the second half of the last century. In 1945, Italy was a country on its knees: it was emerging from twenty years of fascism and five of war. It was a country literally “on the floor”: the social fabric, the economy and the political institutions all had to be reconstructed after the dictatorship and the power vacuum created by the armistice, which lasted two years. The exhibition bears witness to the reconstruction of the country, with all its difficulties and its passions.
USEFUL INFORMATION
WHERE: Gallerie d’Italia – Turin, Piazza San Carlo 156, Turin
OPENING TIMES: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 9.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.; Wednesday, from 9.30 a.m. to 10.30 p.m.; closed on Monday; last entry: an hour and a half before closure
ADMISSION CHARGES: full €10, reduced €8, free entry for affiliates, schools, those under 18 years old, special reduced price of €5 for over-65s, those under 26 years old and clients of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group.
INFORMATION AND BOOKINGS: www.gallerieditalia.com, info@gallerieditalia.com, Freephone 800.167619
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About Intesa Sanpaolo
Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy’s leading banking group – serving families, businesses and the real economy – with a significant international presence. Intesa Sanpaolo’s distinctive business model makes it a European leader in Wealth Management, Protection & Advisory, highly focused on digital and fintech. An efficient and resilient Bank, it benefits from its wholly-owned product factories in asset management and insurance. The Group’s strong ESG commitment includes providing €115 billion in impact lending by 2025 to communities and for the green transition, and €500 million in contributions to support people most in need, positioning Intesa Sanpaolo as a world leader in terms of social impact. Intesa Sanpaolo is committed to Net Zero by 2030 for its own emissions and by 2050 for its loan and investment portfolios. An engaged patron of Italian culture, Intesa Sanpaolo has created its own network of museums, the Gallerie d’Italia, to host the bank's artistic heritage and as a venue for prestigious cultural projects.
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Last updated 16 May 2022 at 16:30
