Debussy's score retains this alchemy of words dedicated to Marika Lion, specialist in XNUMXth and XNUMXth century art, modern and art market. Independent Curator and Head Arts and Culture Department for RFO and Study and Research Centers in Brussels, Milan, Rome.
For five years our conversations have started a affected adagio and then rise, intense and dense, mezzo forte and decrescendo, slowly. Light and bright sonorities, complex rhythmic writing, fluctuating and suspended movement. At the beginning it was Beauty that attracted us: the design and execution of vehicles for transmitting Italian taste, in fact the transfer of famous works onto small artifacts for daily use. Then it was Art and the unveiling of ancient and complexly dated canvases, or the evaluation of art heritage.
Today it is Culture and its interpretation that attracts us. Cultural heritage? Does it rhyme with industrial heritage? Or as the Hungarian Peter, husband of another Marika says in the book “The Right Woman” by Sandor Marai “.. culture is now at an end. [...] He will die, only single ingredients will remain here and there... But by now that kind of people who were aware of a culture will be extinct. People will only have acquaintances, and that's not the same thing. Culture is experience, […]. A continuous, constant experience, like sunlight. Knowledge is only an accessory” (pg 229).
We meet in the simpering Camelia Bakery, enclosed by the Tiffany color, a healthy china in hand, a fragrant and restorative scent of spicy herbs under the nostrils, distant in time and space. High cheekbones, wide smile, very lively eyes, fluid noisette hair all around, Marika Lion listens to me, smiles and replies politely.
You have always worked in the culture and art market sector, first as head of the communication area at Finarte Casa d'Aste, then Director of Borgonuovo 12 (Art Gallery) and Managing Director of Artnetworth (Financial boutique for the art) and still other important assignments, to then devote himself to Art Heritage Management and specifically in the heritage area. You later founded the Arts Culture Advisory studio in order to give visibility and combine different professional skills in institutional communication, enhancement and promotion of private collections and archives. Finally, upon completion of thirty years of professional experience, she definitively assumes the role of Head Department Arts and Culture for RFO Wealth Advice (Rossello Family Office) with Centro Studi e Ricerche in Milan - Rome - Brussels. How are cultural heritages defended in Italy, especially the intangible ones?”
With the constant study and innovation of survey and classification tools. It is necessary to work with the attitude of private consultants in the field of cultural heritage enhancement and who know art well, the players operating in the market and the rules, laws, taxation, but also the management of exhibition art projects. The care of public and private customers of national but also international importance forces us to measure skills and to constantly compare ourselves with global competition. Anyone who works in this sector knows they have to maintain a certain competitive edge and work for it. Now the new horizon is artificial intelligence, previously only an anti-fraud prevention tool, cataloging and recommending works. Now capable of producing and modifying original works and none the less we have to put a reflection on the Blockchain with a digital register that could preserve the history of ownership and the value of the works. How many cultural places are at risk? We think of the National Museum of Rio in Brazil which only last September a fire ruined a large part of its collection or recently, Notre-Dame de Paris whose damage is still being analysed. Not to mention the Palmyra site in Syria and its destruction. That's why no place of culture or other exhibited works of art are immune to a disaster, be it natural or human. While waiting for severe laws to be applied in Italy for the protection of cultural property, starting - in the event of a disaster - by completing the evacuation of all the works at risk (ministerial procedure already applied in France) and then continuing with a greater control of everything that may be at risk. Just think of the libraries – chests of knowledge – rich in documents, manuscripts and books of enormous importance. Public but also private collections, archived on paper tomes and carefully kept but not necessarily digitalised. Digitization is a solution because it is a technique of keeping a digital record of an object or place, which in a way ensures its preservation. It is possible to proceed with the high resolution photographic solution in the case of non-three-dimensional documents and for the latter, instead, the 3D scan which allows to "capture the shape" and obtain the exact copy of an object or a place in three dimensions . This technological process is possible thanks to innovative technologies such as photogrammetry, high resolution photography or 3D scanners. This is why digitization is increasingly essential for museums and private collections for a complete safeguard of the artistic-cultural asset.
In the field of digitization there are various more or less specialized realities and all of them are capable of guaranteeing the protection of heritage before it is destroyed or even partially ruined. Some of these are more specialized in the reconstruction of endangered sites, others instead where digitization is seen as a prevention against deterioration and conservation of works of art. The display of the digital version of the art object would therefore allow for the preservation of the real work. Today it is essential that these new technologies are applied as each heritage can be digitally copied. Only in this way is his memory saved. Of course, this digital reproduction doesn't replace the physical object but it makes it easier to have a copy and share your work. But also a service that has become particularly important in the hereditary aspects, where more and more often it is essential to have a real value of the heritage in order to decide the valorisation formulas. For example, we often find ourselves in the presence of collections of books, paintings, carpets, jewels, acquired over time and from different sources which, if not accredited, risk losing all market value. Our task is to identify the real value of the collection, understand its content, study each source and verify its veracity as well as, as mentioned above, to digitize the works and accompanying documents and enhance its use by a wide audience, with publications and events. A good example of technology at the service of art”.
As an expert in public and institutional communication strategies, enhancement and promotion of artistic and cultural heritage, on which concepts would you build an international promotion of the Marca Trevigiana territory?
I'm also certain that this territory really has an important history, culturally and above all in small or large entrepreneurship. Each production company retains its own memory, made up of ideas, projects, which have led the company to produce something of its own through research, designs and prototypes. Pieces of history still kept as a memory, but not yet valued so that it can be used by the public. Therefore, more than a concept to be built, I would see a project to be implemented starting with awareness raising through conferences on the value of heritage, their digitization and their enhancement and training figures capable of operating and simultaneously transferring this concept. It must also be said that despite the increasingly growing success of "Business Museums" not all companies can organize their own museum, therefore it would be nice to think of a common place where a sort of district could be born where different archives could be exhibited, enjoyed and shared, synthesis and historical memory of a highly productive and competitive territory.
Drawing on his experience as a MASVIC adjunct professor at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice and currently a professor of "Cultural events: characteristics, organizational and communication profiles" in the course of Economics and Marketing of cultural events at IULM - University of Languages and Communication Sciences of Milan, which professional figures are needed today in the world of national and international art?”
Given that I adore teaching and that I have 80 students in my Milanese course, I believe that there may be several new figures, but in a more managerial key. For example, we need more archivists with good IT knowledge who can also operate in the private sector; curators with a less conservative and more innovative approach trying to enhance the history and the works also with multimedia exhibition translations that lead the visitor to immerse themselves in the works as if they were part of them, a model that the new generations like a lot, increasingly bringing to technology; "artistic-patrimonial" mediators to prevent or alleviate disputes between those who have a hereditary right; figures with knowledge of the value of Brand Heritage and Brand Advisory for the communication management phase, professionals with experience in the cultural field, its market and the most innovative enhancement techniques. Independent or associated figures who carry out highly professional activities on their own or in partnership with Family Offices, Wealth Advice and wealth consultancy firms. In this regard, due to the complexity of management, the orientation of the realities that operate and distinguish themselves in this context is to structure themselves more and more so as to be able to expand the offer of services that necessarily have to "travel" with contemporary society .
"The Brand Heritage speaks of private collecting, amplifies the history of a company, neither enhances the meaning, nor certifies the quality of the systems used to give value and finally, communicates to the public inviting them to actively participate in the notoriety".
She is the curator of FIRST Arte, the online magazine of the FIRSTonline newspaper of Economics and Finance, which defines itself as a showcase on beauty with the aim of raising the quality of the information offered and proposing insights to professionals and lovers of art and culture . How does the world of professionals respond to this innovative tool?”
There is a lot of competition, there is certainly no shortage of sources of information on art and culture, but we immediately chose to highlight ourselves by proposing international and less local events, but above all a lot of markets, fairs, auctions and indexes of artists and their works. We have recently added the “art and environment” section where cultural initiatives are proposed which take into account the importance of protecting the environment. It is known that art is also provocation, therefore who better than it can approach and sensitize public opinion and a better civic sense in this regard…
Author of Flights of an artist. Lives (and works) from the collection of the eBook editorial series "The butterflies of Antilia" tell us about the communicative intent of these works".
I would like to repeat what the publisher wrote and which somewhat summarizes my intention: “A trip to an ideal museum, made up of words, where it is possible to admire the life and works of the most formidable talents of modernity. Each chapter is a monothematic room, a curious and confidential article to get to know some of the greats of art more intimately”. But it's also a trip out of town with new friends.
Among your immediate projects is the creation of a photographic exhibition that starts from a project that you called “Botanical Vanitas” how did it become part of your aesthetic investigation subjects?”
I have a passion for photography and for the light that filters and interrupts the moment. I dedicate my soul to the concept of Vanitas of nature, perhaps unknown to many. I am strangely fascinated by the throb that precedes the dissolution, the moment that precedes the transition from one physical state to another. In vegetables, especially flowers, I find the grace of the lightness of being, the here and now that does not belong to the culture of Western humanity. The "Botanical Vanitas" project refers to a research work that translates into the creation of a series of photographs with the use of the iPad with the intention of combining new technologies such as the use of smartphones and tablets contextualize in the phenomenology of contemporary art the concept of the transience of nature and the precariousness of life itself.
The real interest is placed on botany - which unlike the Vanitas referring to human life (historically well represented in the still life paintings) always placed with gloomy drama and where death prevails over all earthly goods - and its delicacy in express equal to the sweetness of music, the final side of one's life cycle and beauty. Vanitas concludes as a new expression of beauty that time has stopped making it fragile and at the same time immortal. The petals fall from the stem, and like light sculptures they are transformed into simply sleeping memories. Also interesting is the relationship with tablet photography which immortalizes the instant a bit like a selfie which then comes back to life through social media and becomes media, a multimedia Vanitas which generates the immortality of Botany. The complete project sees 20 images all according to a contemporary art model, often they are flowers that have finished their life course combined with objects made of materials that can break. Majolica rather than glass vases, ancient or modern, small sculptures in porcelain or fabrics. In addition to the great emotional impact, an attention to detail that penetrates intimately but with great strength certainly emerges from reading. Hence the images (in a format that respects the iPad screen) invite the viewer to delve deeply into the theme of the Vanitas of any form of life, precariously linked to the moment and in this case to photography, the shot of the eternal beauty of flowers.
Sabrina Franceschini Danieli
Article taken from Treviso 30 News – The woman of the month
