Bruno Ceccobelli Exhibition at the Pastificio Cerere Foundation

Project location: ITALY, Rome
Project start date: November 2008 - Project end date: January 2009
Project number: 2008-22
Beneficiary: Fondazione Pastificio Cerere Onlus


The Nando Peretti Foundation is cofinancing the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere's new exhibition by Bruno Ceccobelli, one of the historical member of the Pastificio, and one of the most appreciated Italian contemporary artist.
Ceccobelli was born in Montecastello di Vibio, close to Perugia, in 1952. He started his production in the 80s. Two exhibitions in Paris and New York before the recognition at the Biennale in Venice in the ‘84 and in the '86 confirmed his art inside the Symbolic Abstractism born in Rome at that period.

Founded in 1905 the Pastificio Cerere building is born as a bakery industry but after its shutting down in the sixties, the building has been abandoned until a group of artist decided to live and work there. It became famous in the seventies because it can be compared as a sort of roman SOHO.

Pastificio Cerere is becoming in those last years a milestone in contemporary art thanks to the artists belonging to the school called "Scuola Romana di San Lorenzo" or "Gruppo di San Lorenzo" and on the other side with a new wave of young artists who reside and work in the building.
The scope of the foundation is to combine those two realities and to sustain the art evolution. The foundation was set up in May 2004 and obtained juridical acknowledgment by the Lazio regional authorities in October 2004.

The foundation is a non profit organization which has as its main scope the promotion of the contemporary art and the development of relationship, partnership with other private and public institutions with the same purposes operating in Italy and abroad.


I. THE BUILDING
Turn of the century Italy saw the beginnings of industrialization in what was basically an agricultural society, so it was hardly surprising if a pasta factory (with combined flour mill) was named after Ceres, the roman corn goddess. The complex of buildings and courtyards still retains the divinity's name in Italian - Cerere - to our days. Marked by the years, yet dignified nonetheless, the facades run along three sides - via Tiburtina, via degli Ausoni, piazza Sanniti - in Rome's San Lorenzo district.
Abandoned in the 1960's the Cerere building is the example of the gradual, low-key conversion of an industrial building. The last fifteen years have seen it reoccupied, slowly but surely, and now some thirty people - artist for the most part - have set up studios inside it. Each tenant has cleaned up and restored his own particular space to different degrees, giving the handsome loft spaces a new lease of life. True, the common areas have been neglected, but that isn't really part of a rental tenants responsibilities after all.

II. SCOPE OF THE FOUNDATION
The main scope of the foundation is to make this enormous amount of art heritage of the last 30 years, which developed and was created in the building, reachable to everyone. Therefore, it will be considered as a place where one can be part of the artistic circle or just be a spectator of it.
The exhibition space is crucial to reach the aim that is being sought. The foundation - after the visit to the permanent exhibition corresponding to the permanent collection of the artist belonging to "the Scuola di San Lorenzo"- will propose other activities which distinguishes the foundation from mainly all the other museums. The visitor will have many opportunities that he may choose from(courses, seminars, conventions and all related to the foundation activity).
The foundation will involve the artists to whom it will be offered:
1) A permanent collection for the illustrious artists
2) Workshops to allow the artist to get together and to arrange for a confrontation between their art

3) Realization of social utility projects involving the artists in the city activities
4) Site specific activities

III. STRUCTURE
Headquarters
The foundation headquarters is inside the Pastificio Cerere in a 200sq spaces. It will be enlarged through the addition of successive spaces for side activities such as courses, workshops and meetings.

Exhibitions
The foundation will promote young artists and artists that are already famous in the contemporary art world. The exhibition program is set up annually. The exhibitions are temporary and they last between 1 to 3 months. The exhibitions are set up either in the Headquarters or in other institutions.

Artists
The foundation dedicates part of its space to the permanent collection. Beside it, the Foundation carries out a continuous research on new and emergent artists and renowned artists. This searching will be done all around Italy and abroad.


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