We met and had a tête-à-tête chat with Giovanna Caruso Fendi, founder of FOROF, an experimental Roman space straddling contemporary art and archaeology. FOROF is located a stone’s throw from Piazza Venezia, in front of the Trajan’s Column. The architectural renovation project of the spaces of Palazzo Roccagiovine was entrusted to studio IT’S. Over to Giovanna Caruso Fendi.
Where everything began
Let’s start with how your passion for art was born. Is there a family or external figure that guided you?
I definitely believe I can say that since I was a child, I have breathed the love for beauty and art, thanks to the family I was born into.
I cannot forget the enthusiasm and excitement when I knew that Karl Lagerfeld was coming from my mom Alda. He was in Rome to work in the company and design the new collections. After school, I would leave everyone to run and sit cross-legged under the table where he was drawing.. I would even go to retrieve from the bin the drawings he discarded.
What course of study did you choose?
I embarked on a completely different path because I graduated in law, took the prosecutor’s exam, and also worked in the official department of the company, then in the extrajudicial company that dealt with counterfeiting.
When the 5 Fendi sisters sold the family brand to LVMH, at that very moment, I realized that Law was not my path.
From there, I dedicated myself to managing artists, thanks to my mom who created a foundation. Then, I deepened my passion together with my eldest daughter, Veronica, who graduated in Cultural Management at Bocconi and obtained the master’s degree from Sotheby’s Institute. We traveled together, visiting exhibitions, studios, fairs.
She worked with Richard Saltoun, and now she is the Gallery Manager of Galleria Continua in Rome.
Palazzo Roccagiovine, opposite the Colonna Traiana is the headquarters of FOROF
Why did you choose this location as the headquarters for your project?
We are in front of the Trajan’s Column, in the most majestic forum of the Imperial Forums. I was able to take it over from my family, continue the protection to preserve the magical archaeological site located in the Hypogeum… the flooring with polychrome marbles pertaining to the Basilica Ulpia of the 2nd century AD was considered an archaeological discovery of extreme importance. Not only was it possible to understand the actual coloring of the marbles but also how the Basilica was arranged, which extended under the Palace up to the Altar of the Fatherland.
Inside FOROF, the eastern part unfolds in particular, where the public ritual of manumissio vindicta took place daily, freeing the slaves and making them Freedmen, “free persons” but above all Roman citizens.
This exciting discovery needed to be enhanced. I wanted to reopen this place that had been closed for twenty years, protect it, preserve it, but above all enhance it with an innovative project.
How?
So I created a startup thanks to a grant that I won, which allowed me to have a financial cushion to be repaid in 8 years at 0 interest rate.
So what does it mean for you to be right at this point in Rome?
We are in the heart and the guts of the Roman Empire. The very name FOROF is a palindrome and recalls the Trajan’s Column which, as the writer Italo Calvino said, almost seems like a film reel. It tells the deeds of the emperor in the battle against the Dacians.
The narration proceeds like a spiral and can be read from bottom to top or vice versa, as if we could advance from the past to the future through the present. I want FOROF to embody a bridge between eras and between places. The innovative and multidisciplinary language of contemporary artists projects us into the future, touching specific themes and drawing from the potential of the present.
The objective of FOROF for Giovanna Caruso Fendi
What is the goal of FOROF?
We start from the Genius Loci, because, as I was explaining, we are in front of the Trajan’s Column and we are situated on the foundations of the ancient Basilica Ulpia.
The goal is to create a dialogue between archaeology and contemporary art in a permanent and continuous way. FOROF unfolds its program through seasons and episodes.
The seasons are the artistic-cultural programming that is entrusted each year to a different contemporary artist, who belongs neither to the category of emerging artists nor to that of the great masters, but to that of mid-career.
What criteria does the board follow to select the artists?
The choice falls on artists who meet certain requirements and who can be able to grasp the powerful charge of this place. In particular, artists who boast a multidisciplinary and performative path that favors interaction with places and space.
The continuity referred to by the project is given precisely by the programming of the episodes that mark the public program, every month, for all 9 months in which the site-specific installation remains permanent, going to reactivate and deepen the themes that the main artists have highlighted through the main exhibition.
Engage a general audience with contemporary art and archaeology
You want to bring not only industry professionals but also a general audience closer to contemporary art, starting from an archaeological site. Are you managing to carry out this mission, and what would you like to change or add?
In these 3 years of FOROF’s life, every small success has been made possible thanks to the visitors. Those who entered, attracted by the archaeological content of the site, were then transported by a team of young experts – all graduates in art history, archaeology, or art management – being struck by the dialogue with contemporary art. Those who, on the other hand, entered thinking they would find a space related only to contemporary art cried in front of the marble flooring of the Basilica Ulpia. This testifies that this intersection of past, present, and future is truly perceived in FOROF.
This project has nothing to do with either a foundation, an art gallery, or even a museum. The legal form I wanted to use is that of the srl benefit corporation: profit and revenue are reinvested in the artistic-cultural programming. Alongside the purpose of a company, the benefit for the social community also matters, so that a positive and lasting impact with shared value is evident. For this reason, I think it is important to be able to rename patronage.
Giovanna Caruso Fendi and the idea of a widespread patronage
What do you mean by patronage?
Currently, we cannot think of patronage by identifying it with its Renaissance form in which the individual art magnate or the individual family, for example, the Medici in Florence, were the main patrons of artworks.
Today, we can all be patrons, in our small, medium, and large ways, depending on our possibilities. I believe it is essential to feel part of a project. Now that FOROF can be said to be launched for the artistic part, I want to encourage cultural content. I have redefined this form as “widespread patronage or collective patronage,” borrowing from the fashion world a sort of “prêt à porter” patronage. Entering FOROF is like wanting to create the outfit of a famous designer, entering the allure and participating in new sensations.
How?
With the launch of the Contemporary Cultural Cafés, inspired by those of the Avant-gardes of the 20th century, such as Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich and Bal Tic Tac by Giacomo Balla in Rome, born after the social rupture caused by the world conflict. They were ideal environments for artists who did not just build the scenery of the place but had a common goal of aggregation and exchange. It is no coincidence that FOROF was born during the lockdown, the pandemic plunged us into a sort of war period. I believe that Rome needed a place where this aggregation could arise from the new language of contemporary artists, like a common cry of solidarity.
Contemporary artists, moreover, are able to stimulate an openness of mind starting from the crucial issues of current events.
The fourth season of FOROF with the Gelitin/Gelatin
Precisely in this regard, how did the fourth season of FOROF come about and why did you decide together with the curator to involve the Gelatin?
My dream of bringing the Gelitin/Gelatin to Rome was realized with the curation of Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, who is also the representative of what is the Board or Scientific Committee of FOROF. I have always said that a project like this must be supported by professionals. Mine is more of a contribution from an autodidact. When my daughter Veronica started studying for her Master’s, one day she came home ecstatic: in class, they had talked about a collective formed by pioneers in the performative field, for their ability to mix audacity, play, and social critique. The Gelitin/Gelatin are 4 Austrian artists who met in the distant 1978 at a summer camp and since 1993 have decided to collaborate and work together until today.
Through their art, conventions can be broken, taboos and prejudices can be surpassed, both on an individual and collective level. We brought them for the first time to Rome and to a place that speaks precisely of freedom.
What have been the seasons of FOROF?
Season I “Lovotic” by Soundwalk Collective curated by Threes Production
Season II “Sortilegio” by Alex Cecchetti curated by Maria Alicata
Season III “Baltic Adventure” by Augustas Serapinas curated by Ilaria Gianni
Season IV “Nimbus Limbus Omnibus” by Gelitin/Gelatin curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi
Nimbus Limbus Omnibus
Do you want to tell me about Nimbus Limbus Omnibus?
Nimbus Limbus Omnibus reminds one of a magic formula, it can also bring to mind the formula that was pronounced by the magistrate during the Rite of “manumissio vindìcta”: vindicàtio ex servitùte in libertàtem. The formula absolved and emancipated the slave from subordination to the master, thus making him a Roman citizen. The liberation was therefore understood as the freedom to assume rights but also duties, and it was also a form of awareness of one’s own limits.
This adherence to responsibilities, I believe, is very important to you, with FOROF you would like to bring benefits to the community…
Let’s return to the figure of the spiral.
In an interview, Giuseppe Penone focused on plant cells whose growth in length derives from the spiral deposition of cellulose microfibrils. Penone relates them to the human mind as if, in the same way, it follows an evolutionary spiral pattern. The same spiral that characterizes the Trajan’s Column and inspires this space of experimentation. Many people undertake analysis paths nowadays, myself included. Psychologists and psychiatrists often use the spiral staircase as an example: to dissolve the skeletons in the closet or solidified logical patterns, one must go back to move forward, rewind the tape.
Psychology is present in the works of Gelitin/Gelatin, who come from the country where Freudian Psychoanalysis was born. They chose to exhibit bandaged busts, presented back in 2019 in the Vienna gallery. As soon as they saw this place, they thought of the busts.
The performance of Lu.Pa
We reconnect in this way to the performance of Lu.Pa that emphasized the symbolism of the busts.
The programming of the episodes is truly connected with the concept of the season.
The artists of the episodes are chosen when they address themes connected to the exhibition, the iconic idea of the collective imagination of what a bust represents in Roman classicism. The face is precisely the expression of the classicism of the busts we encounter in the villas and gardens of ancient Rome. They break this idea because their busts are without faces, they are two napes reflecting one another. It means that we must take a journey that is precisely the Nimbus Limbus Omnibus, a dream of transformation. We all have a story but we must not be chained by it, we have a baggage but it must not weigh us down and block us, we must shed specificity to understand that we can board the same bus, that we belong to the human race. Going beyond specificity, humanization comes into play. By accepting our limits, we can enter a limbo, an ethereal cloud without boundaries. I see their journey as the Divine Comedy. The nimbus for me represents the Dark Forest in which Dante finds himself, through the encounter with Virgil who represents thought, hence the two heads that have no face but two thinking skulls.
Lu.Pa is composed of two female artists with their uniqueness who have merged into a duo, thus giving up their specificity. In the performance, it is as if they merge into a single body. Also, in terms of their physical appearance and how they present themselves, they indeed have elements of similarity.
In the performance they wore these skirts that lifted and covered the face. Despite this, we manage to capture their gaze.
Being a woman in today’s world
What does it mean to be a woman for you at this moment and what does this performance bring to the exhibition?
The duo Lu.Pa has really delved into the theme of the liberation of Gelatin. Their performance represents a sculpture in motion… being close to the busts, they have created both an aesthetic and ethical connection. By ethics, I don’t mean moral “what is right or what is wrong,” but rather an ethics from which a reflection on our dimension as human beings arises.
The performance is inspired by the iconic figure of Marilyn Monroe in the famous film The Seven Year Itch by Billy Wilder, known as Quando la moglie è in vacanza.
Marilyn is on a grate, below which the subway passes, the passage fuels a gust of air that suddenly lifts the skirt.
What does this iconic scene represent in your opinion?
In the collective imagination, it embodied the beginning of female emancipation… the 1960s, the liberation from rigid customs, the advent of the miniskirt. Freedom, however, went hand in hand with imprisonment: women were once again “encapsulated,” “boxed” into a new model.
The fact that Lulù and Pamela stand facing each other in a mirror-like manner symbolically alludes to a moment of reflection: the figure of the individual doubles.
What is important to both the Gelatin and Lu.Pa is the obscene, what is offstage and would remain in the shadows. In the performance, the fan with its deafening noise is a sort of monster, so much so that we wonder how much the spectators can resist the desire to turn it off.
Today we are still struggling with patterns that seemed entrenched but are instead fragile. There are forces that would like to find the easiest way and turn off the fan and with it what it represents: the movement of transformation, because transforming is a path of labor. Not all of us are willing to accept the effort. The patriarchy seems very present, how many rites of manumissio must a woman still perform to free herself from the role to which society relegates her?
The art market and collecting for Giovanna Caruso Fendi
What do you think of the art market?
My personal and contingent intimate collecting. I am not driven by the hunt for the promising artist; it is a logic that does not belong to me. For me, collecting is also embracing a humanitarian path and accepting the sensitivity, the courageous, visionary, and revolutionary thought of art.
How would you define your collecting?
I started my own personal collecting which, however, comes from the gut. I follow my personal intuition and sensitivity. Art has been a powerful common thread throughout my life, leading me to build a project on my own.
Who are the blue-chip or mid-career artists in your collection?
Augustas Serapinas (Vilnius, 1990) whom FOROF hosted with the exhibition Baltic Adventure, then Alessandro Piangiamore, Tomaso Binga, Marta Spagnoli, Žanna Kadyrova – Ukrainian artist from Kiev.
Who would you recommend following among “emerging” and mid-career artists?
I am honored both to have the opportunity to know young artists and to be able to enter the studios of great masters like Sergio Lombardo.
I recently bought a work by Silvia Giambrone (Richard Saltoun) and by Giulia Crispiani from Baleno International on the occasion of Arte in Nuvola.
Foro Traiano 1 · Rome
www.forof.it
She has collaborated for many years with art magazines such as Artribune, XIBT Contemporary, ArtApp, Insideart and Espoarte, preferring contemporary art in its many facets and media drifts.
