The Collector | Italian aristocrat uses contemporary art as diplomacy in Shanghai show

A mid the din of drawbridges being pulled up around the world, an Italian aristocrat is using her contem­­porary art collection to try and open unofficial diplomatic channels between countries.

“Contemporary art is not just a way to decorate our houses. It is so much more,” says Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. “It may not be easy to understand contemporary art but it opens your mind and makes you think. It helps us better understand each other.”

The 58-year-old from Turin is going to show part of her contemporary art collection at Shanghai’s private Rockbund Art Museum (RAM), founded by Hong Kong-based billion­aire Thomas Ou Yaping, from March 24. Museum director Larys Frogier will select the items, which will include works by Western and Asian artists as well as a newly commi­ssioned piece by Shanghai-born Zhang Ruyi.

In June, the other half of the exchange will see RAM taking a new version of a 2016 group exhibition by Asian artists to Turin’s Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo museum. That show, curated by Amy Cheng and Ramen Hsieh Feng Rong, involves artists from all over Asia who tell little-known stories about the development of their home countries. For example, Thai artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Fireworks (Archives), a video installation from 2014, takes the viewer on a surreal night journey through a temple in the border region of northern Thailand that references the region’s tumultuous history. Japanese artist Tomoko Yoneda’s conceptual photography captures the history of the disputed Sakhalin Island, where empty Japanese factories sit in eerie silence. An installation presenting an imagined map of Hong Kong in the future, titled Hong Kong Is Land (2014), by Map Office, is also going to Turin.

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“Europeans rarely get the chance to see works by these Asian artists,” Sandretto Re Rebaudengo says. “Some of the art­ists will also be going to Turin for an exchange programme.”