Chiara Aluigi in Co(ro)n(a)versation with Vincenzo della Corte

Vincenzo and I met during the last edition of Artissima. He was so kind to invite me and other Sotheby's Institute students to his private gathering during the fair. To meet such a well-cultured and mannered person is rather unique nowadays. Furthermore, I really respect Vincenzo as an art market professional: in spite of selling artworks, he believes, first of all, in nurturing the sentimental value of the object, rather than its market value. During the pandemic, I had the pleasure of interviewing him, and I had the chance to find out more about his career path and about how a dealer should behave during these difficult times.

CA: Born in the vibrant and colorful Naples, you are now living in the European city of Culture, Vienna. Could you tell us about your career path, from the early beginnings to the establishing of Gallery Vin Vin?

VdC: Naples and Vienna, Apollo and Dionysus: two very different cities, both capable of offering pleasing surprises. I learned classical music and violin in Naples and Florence and then, I moved to Vienna to study orchestral conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts, with a final graduation concert that I conducted at Musikverein with Radio Symphony Orchestra.

With my art gallery, everything started very spontaneously. Around 2008, when I was still studying orchestral conducting, I became increasingly involved in the art world, doing a lot of studio visits to young artists, attending art fairs all around Europe, and, ultimately, organising exhibitions in an intimate, domestic form. These activities became so intense and emotionally satisfying for me, that at a certain point I felt the necessity to open my own platform. With Gallery Vin Vin, I could finally acquire my stake in the art world scene and become a member of the contemporary art community.

Honestly, when I was still looking for a gallery space, I felt as if I was going to jump into cold water. However, I eventually found a basement located in an excellent position—in the main district of Vienna—and I organised my first gallery exhibition in March 2016. Everything started from there, from that beautiful basement sized 25 square meters.

Vin Vin is a young gallery that has already achieved amazing goals, winning the first prize as ‘best emergent gallery’ at the 2019 edition of MiArt (an art fair organised in Milan). In which ways has Gallery Vin Vin contradistinguished itself from the other stands taking part in the fair?

I am not sure whether our gallery’s presentation, with Saskia Te Nicklin works on display, actually contradistinguished itself from the other stands. I will let other people judge. What I know for sure is that we gave our best to build a meaningful exhibition, which eventually brought us the LCA Law Firm Prize award for the most distinctive presentation within the emergent section.

The jury - composed by Sarah McCrory, Director, Goldsmiths CCA, London; François Quintin, former Director, Lafayette Anticipations - Fondation d'entreprise Galeries Lafayette and Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris; Kathleen Reinhardt, Curator of Contemporary Art, Albertinum Dresden - stated:

“We have awarded the LCA Prize for Emergent to Vin Vin Gallery, from Vienna, for the solo exhibition of Saskia Te Nicklin. The jury acknowledged the very strongly experimental approach towards different materials, which leads to a very unique research and process. The gallery was also selected for the site-specific nature of the artwork, and for the choice of treating relevant and current topics such as violence, feminism and ecology. The installation approach, with reflective surfaces experientially engaging visitors, has been another reason to assign this prize.”

— LCA Law Firm Prize award Jury

Artissima, Torino. Source: unknown. — *Artissima,* Torino. Source: unknown.

We had the pleasure of meeting a few months ago at Artissima, an art fair of great relevance for the Italian contemporary art scene. What, in your opinion, were the major highlights of Artissima this year? Please tell us more about your experience at the fair.

It was our first time participating in Artissima, and it has truly been an incredible experience, both for us and Myles Starr, the artist we were representing at the fair. I would identify as major highlights the communicational skills and kindness of the entire team at Artissima: they are something unique! I established a great relationship with all of them from the very first moment, and, obviously, when a managerial team works so well, the results can be seen straight away. We had the opportunity to engage with a new, actively responding audience, and we have been assigned the New Entries Fair Fund, established by Professional Trust Company.

Furthermore, I would like to mention another element of Artissima which, in my opinion, makes the fair even more special. Contrary to other art fairs, which are almost entirely commercial-driven, Artissima has a sharp character of research: the event aims to turn the spotlight onto new emerging galleries, rather than focusing only on the established ones. This is noticeable from the very first edition of the fair, as a stimulating mix of galleries takes part in it every year.

Gallery Vin Vin booth at Artissima. All the works on display are by Myles Starr. — Gallery Vin Vin booth at *Artissima*. All the works on display are by Myles Starr.

The world's economy is currently going through harsh times due to the COVID-19, and the art market is consequently suffering from it. In which ways will the pandemic shape the new face of the contemporary art market?

Although it is extremely difficult to predict how the art market will be affected by the current circumstances, I would like to report what Romano Prodi, the former prime minister of Italy and President of the European Commission, stated in a recent interview. In his opinion, the USA, EUROPE, and CHINA will become even more relevant, and these three areas will become much more self-sufficient and less interconnected than how they have been until now. This hypothetical scenario, of course, would influence the art system and the art market, which will probably become less global than before.

In addition to that, the separation between poor and rich people will increase prominently. Translated into art market terms, this means that while the mega blue-chip galleries will be able to face the issues caused by the pandemic without too many troubles, mid-size galleries will be hugely affected. In fact, while small galleries won’t have, for instance, to worry about paying employees and very expensive rents, the same cannot be said for the mid-size ones: a lot of them will eventually be constricted to shut down.

How are you managing your business in this very difficult moment?

This period is tragic for humanity and difficult for the art system, and we will need to formulate new paradigms if and where possible. While we are trying to understand what is happening and in which ways the future will be articulated, obviously we must keep our energy and positivity alive.

After a rather necessary reflection-break that I took at the beginning of March, I came back to business through what I would define as a ‘non-invasive modus’, which consists of continuing to create interesting content, dialoguing with artists, continuously engaging with the public, the clients, etc.

As a result of this, I have been able to bring further and, in a couple of cases, to finally accomplish some interesting collaborations I had left on pause for months.

Of course, in my case it helps a lot having no employees, relatively low rent and in general what I would define as a ‘hyper sustainable’ gallery structure.

In these days online gallery viewing seems to have become essential. Do you have a particular view on them?

We are experiencing a sudden acceleration of digital presence within the art system, and the online viewing rooms are a useful tool in a time in which it is impossible to travel and experience art in person, but we have not reached a satisfactory stage yet. We will all have to increase the quality of our online presence, and this is a tough challenge, considering the necessity to transmit contents with the same credibility, transparency and energy that we try to deliver during our personal interactions at galleries and art fairs.

Please tell us a bit about your artists and their ongoing exhibitions at Vin Vin.

I will talk about the artists with whom we had the most recent projects. The gallery works closely with Martin Hotter, Thomas Liu Le Lann, Saskia Te Nicklin, Anne Schmidt, Myles Starr, Ida Szigethy, and Dino Zrnec. The exhibition with works made by Ida Szigethy is the most recent one, an extraordinary painter from Vienna, born in 1933. We presented Ida with one work at CONTRAPPUNTO, our newly inaugurated project space, physically incorporated in the main gallery space but contradistinguished by a very independent program. A very close friend of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who also collected her work, Ida started painting as an autodidact in 1960. Currently, she is part of The Beginning – Art in Austria, 1945-1980 Vienna at Albertina Modern, the contemporary section of Albertina Museum, planned to be inaugurated on 12 March but for obvious reasons postponed. The museum will re-open on the 27th of May.

We will soon inaugurate the second solo exhibition by Myles Starr, born in New York in 1987. I met Myles in 2015 when he first came to Vienna. We became very good friends and later I decided to organize his first solo exhibition in my gallery, inaugurated in April 2019. The event eventually coincided with the inauguration of the new gallery space, located in HIntzerstrasse 4, 1030. Titled The Name of The Rose, the exhibition consisted of painting and sculptures, windows and towers, and it has been the first chapter of an extraordinary collaboration that went on with a solo presentation at Artissima, which ended up being a real blast, forgive me for the term. The upcoming exhibition, titled Wilde, will be a surprise, there will be no paintings and it will sharply convey Myles’ unique ability to build contents through a bright and witty spirit.

To conclude, which tips would you give to young art market individuals that would like to start their own business by opening an art gallery?

Have the passion for this work, otherwise, don’t even start.

Grazie mille Vincenzo!

For more information about Vin Vin Gallery:

https://www.vinvin.eu

@vindellacorte

Chiara Aluigi

Contributor, MADE IN BED

@chiaraluigi

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiara-aluigi/