A new space to bring contemporary art closer to everyone

In the historical center of Oleggio, in the province of Novara, Italy, Palazzo Bellini has returned to its ancient splendor, thanks to a careful restoration commissioned by Laura and Luigi Giordano and led by architect Lorenzo Bini and Studio Binocle, in close collaboration with the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape. Two floors of this precious neoclassical building, starting from November 25, will host, in an area of about 500 square meters – adorned with stucco, bas-reliefs, and wooden ceilings – a new ambitious project to bring contemporary art to audiences of all ages: SPA | Spazio Per Arte.

Through this initiative, the Giordanos will share with the city and visitors the artworks from their large and diverse collection of contemporary art, characterized by an interesting mix of about 200 pieces covering various media and artistic genres – from figuration to abstraction, from neo-expressionism to conceptual art – from the 1980s to the present day. Among these, prominent names from different generations of artists stand out, such as Hermann Nitsch, Arnulf Rainer, George Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Miriam Kahn, Wolfgang Laib, William Kentridge, Antony Gormley, Roland Flexner, Roberto Cuoghi, Elmgreen & Dragset, to name a few, up to younger artists like Gina Folly, Anne Ihmof, and Diego Marcon.

To inaugurate this new cultural reality, the exhibition BIANCO, curated by Rischa Paterlini, curator of the Laura and Luigi Giordano Collection, will take place. The exhibition will focus on the color white and will be open from November 25 to July 31, 2024.

White is the favorite color of the Giordano family, a color with great symbolic significance and inspiration. The exhibition’s display path invites us in a synesthetic way to something unheard of in our image-dominated era: “feeling with our eyes”, thus re-establishing the connection between mind and body, emotion and ideas, through the dominant sense of contemporary cognition, prompting reflection on the ephemeral nature of life, the purity, and the beauty of simplicity. As Laura Crola Giordano stated, white “is the color that allows us to observe without distraction”, focusing on the entirety of our experience, on the here and now. Among the various works selected for the exhibition, it will be possible to observe pieces by Wolfgang Laib, Mona Hatoum, Anne Ihmof, Robin Rhode, Trisha Baga, Vanessa Beecroft, Anselm Kiefer, and Diego Marcon.

SPA | Art Space intends to present various contemporary art exhibitions over time, accompanied by public programs, events, conferences, and moments of in-depth exploration, as well as a program of visits and workshops for schools, aiming to bring the world of art, in all its forms, closer to the community. For this reason, access to the space and exhibitions will be free. The Giordanos have entrusted the scientific and curatorial supervision of the programming to the researcher and curator Francesca Valentini.