The Villa Romana at Via Senese, Florence, 2012, © Archiv Verein Villa Romana e.V
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Villa Romana Fellows 2013, Mariechen Danz, Heide Hinrichs, Shannon Bool, Daniel Maier-Reimer with Echo, © Archiv Verein Villa Romana e.V.
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Shannon Bool, Etwas in den Griff bekommen, 2012/2013, © Courtesy Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf
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Henrik Olesen, K.E.T.T.Y.L.A.R.O.C.C.A.B.I.A.N.C.O.N.A.P.A.L.M. 1 + 2, 2013, © Archiv Verein Villa Romana e.V.
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Max Beckmann, Ausblick aus der Villa Romana (sonnig), 1907, © Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz
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Superstudio, Dai Salvataggi dei Centri Storici: Firenze, 1972, © Archiv Verein Villa Romana e.V.
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This summer, Villa Romana presented itself in the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle with the exhibition and performance program Süden. Now the artist’s house in Florence is being featured at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. The exhibition Villa Romana 1905 – 2013 showcases the house on Via Senese as a place of art production and exchange, from its founding by the painter and sculptor Max Klinger up to the present day. Current works by this year’s Villa Romana Fellows – Shannon Bool, Mariechen Danz, Heide Hinrichs, and Daniel Maier-Reimer – who were also featured in Süden, are on exhibit in Bonn. The Villa Romana Fellowship is not only the oldest German art prize but also the longest-standing cultural commitment of Deutsche Bank
and its foundations. The bank has sponsored this renowned contemporary
art award in Germany since the end of the 1920s – an impressive
testimony to the bank's commitment to nurturing young talent.
At the center of the exhibition is the history of the artist’s house and works of former fellows including Max Beckmann, Georg Baselitz, Anna Oppermann, and Amelie von Wulffen. Other works engage directly with Florence – for example, designs by the avant-garde Italian architects from Superstudio,
who in their radical design for a re-creation of the Renaissance city
simply put its center under water. Many exhibits are owned by the Villa Romana organization and some were even created at the artist’s house. The curator of the show is Angelika Stepken,
who has directed the artist’s house since the end of 2006. Under her
aegis, Villa Romana has established itself as a platform for current
artistic positions from the entire Mediterranean region. In keeping
with this, contributions by guest artists such as the Albanian Edi Hila and the Greek artist Eleni Kamma are included in the show. The exhibition complements the large show Florence! which sheds light on more than 700 years of art in the Tuscan capital and ends in the 19th century. Villa Romana 1905-2013 is a contemporary counterpoint to this magnificent historical presentation.
Villa Romana 1905–2013
The Artists House in Florence
11/22/2013 – 3/9/2014
Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn
The “Villa Romana” exhibition can only be accessed via the “Florence!” show.
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