The Italian contemporary art foundation Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo was founded in 1995 by the international contemporary art collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and is under the artistic direction of Francesco Bonami.
The Fondazione’s first exhibition space was set up in 1997 at the Palazzo Re Rebaudengo in Guarene d’Alba, a small town just outside of Turin. In the following years history was made as some of today’s hottest international artists passed through and contributed to a rich exhibition programme and to the last five editions of the international art prize Premio Regione Piemonte.
From as early as 1995, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has been producing and showing the work of artists who have since gone on to become internationally acclaimed, such as Doug Aitken, Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan and Shirin Neshat.
In September 2002, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo opened its current headquarters and main exhibition space in Turin; a centre for contemporary art with a gallery space of over 1,500 square metres, a book shop, auditorium, educational dept., cafeteria and restaurant. The centre is a flexible structure in which exhibitions can be assembled quickly and efficiently in order to respond to today’s trends and a range of activities and events (films, talks, music, theatre and dance) which are organised in accord with the main exhibitions.
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo holds a wide range of exhibitions and has addressed a variety of challenging themes and issues over the years, more recent examples being: Don’t touch the White Woman in 2004; T1 and T2 – 1st and 2nd editions of the Turin Triennial, featuring the Takashi Murakami retrospective in 2005 and Paul Chan in 2008/9; Sub-Contingent The Indian Subcontinent in Contemporary Art, ALLLOOKSAME, contemporary art from China, Japan and Korea in 2006, YouPrison, Reflections on the limitation of Freedom and Space and Greenwashing: Environment. Perils, Promises and Perplexities in 2008, additionally developing co-projects with other international art institutions such as the Hara Museum in Tokyo (Chain of Visions, 2001), the Serpentine Gallery in London (Doug Aitken, New Ocean, 2003), the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis (How Latitudes become Forms, 2003), the Baltic Mill in Gateshead (Carol Rama, 2004) and Tate Liverpool (Glenn Brown, 2009).
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has three main aims: to promote both Italian and international artists by supporting the production and exhibition of new works, to bring an ever growing public closer to contemporary art whilst introducing dialogue and to exchange and create partnerships with other worldwide art institutions.
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo also has an educational centre which accommodates local schools and coordinates courses on contemporary art for adults. The foundation also organises an annual Young Curators Residency Programme and the International Prize (Premio Stellare) honouring women’s achievements across the world.
The Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection was started in the early 1990s and contains photography, painting, sculpture, installation, film and video and features works by both internationally acclaimed and emerging artists.
