Two years and a few meters. It was May 20, 2022 when it opened its doors, in the middle of Via Toledo, very close to the previous space that collected its collections, Palazzo Zevallos. But two years and a few meters for Gallerie d’Italia have been a revolution. For the Intesa Sanpaolo museum and for the city’s cultural scene: the arrival at Piacentini palace, former headquarters of the Banco di Napoli, has increased the exhibition surface area and the centrality of the museum which today begins its journey from the ground floor, facing the street, with undoubtedly greater visibility. It was among the ideas of those responsible to open up in Naples, while the city became one of the most desired tourist destinations in Europe. And so today Michele Coppola, one of the architects of the project as director of the four artistic spaces of the banking group, can say out loud: «Mission accomplished. And I declare it now that two years have passed: the first is not reliable, we are working on the drive of novelty, while a two-year period is useful to evaluate the real impact of the proposal. And now the museum has a consolidated and defined identity.”
Coppola, where do we start from for an assessment of the first two years?
«From a conviction: there is no such broad and complete project in Europe. And I am referring precisely to the one in Naples, despite the fact that we consider the four locations as parts of a single widespread museum.”
Isn’t that too ambitious of a statement?
«We have taken over an entire building, which is also very significant for the history of the group, expanding the spaces for exhibitions. We have increased the collection and created dozens of temporary exhibitions of the highest level and focus on Italian and international artists, as well as having developed a crucial permanent section such as that of the Attic vases. Then the activities: we worked with schools, on fragilities, organized conferences and dozens of concerts, making the space an open place. An idea of a “total” museum that was rewarded by attendance.”
What numbers are we talking about?
«Over six hundred thousand visitors in two years, of which more than one hundred thousand under 18. Dozens of schools involved for over a thousand laboratories and workshops. But the figures only partially tell the results, perhaps a detail does it more: like the note left by a mother who thanked Gallerie d’Italia because she would never have thought of taking her son to a museum more than once . And instead our space is made to return many times.”
Let’s talk about the exhibitions.
«I wouldn’t know which to choose, between the first, “Restitutions”, or the influx of public who greeted the exhibition dedicated to Artemisia Gentileschi, or Mario Schifano’s solo exhibition with the catalog sold out, and again “Napoli al time of Napoleon” and the last, on Velàzquez. While others will come in the next period.”
Which?
«Two already in the pipeline, of a very different type. One on Andy Warhol who was very active in Naples, another on William Hamilton, an 18th century English painter and illuminist linked to the Bourbon court. Then there are two open dossiers, always different but very fascinating: the first involves the French JR, a forty-year-old artist of great fame from whom we would like to ask for a site-specific project that talks about the city, the other is a focus on female painting in the Naples of the ‘600, on the basis of the success achieved by the exhibition on Gentileschi”.
Does Naples remain at the center of the programs?
«Undoubtedly. But as a hub of an international scene, without parochial pressures. Let’s take what happens with our Caravaggio: the “Martyrdom of Saint Ursula” is now at the National Gallery in London which lent us the Velàzquezes, and for a few months the English cultural scene is dominated by Naples and its masterpieces; this is how it must be in the future, Naples lends a hand to Gallerie d’Italia with his visibility and we reciprocate by circulating his name, as happened in the case of the quote in the “New York Times” last year”.
Gallerie d’Italia is not just a museum.
«You can listen to music, take part in book presentations and you can dine on the attic, enjoying the specialties of chef Giuseppe Iannotti. Soon we will have the first honey obtained from the hives located on the roof of the museum: in addition to being a zero-centimeter gastronomic offer, it is a sign of environmental sustainability. Today, whoever manages a museum has to think about everything, even work, and here we have dozens of employees, the true strength of our reality.”
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