My family’s collection originated with my father Oreste and had a particular genesis: my father, in the 60s and 70s, had a company that made plates for art catalogs and was constantly in contact with artists. There was a time when printing a catalog was a slow and complex work, which required the presence of the author for its creation and composition.
My father thus became friends with many artists and was also in the privileged position of knowing the artistic avant-garde of those years.
Many times he would come home with abstract and conceptual works, many times even provocative, in contrast to the classical painting in vogue in those years, made up mainly of landscapes and still lifes.
It was a gymnasium of life that marked me deeply because, through the artists I met and especially the works I observed in the workshop and at home, I was able to develop my own taste and passion for art.
I realized the importance of working in a place where art and beauty are an integral part and I then brought this awareness in my company, in emmegi Group.
The world of publishing has completely changed as the world of art evolves rapidly, but my father’s lesson has remained. A few years ago I renovated an old building in the Isola district and brought part of my collection here, because I wanted my collaborators to be able to work in a place full of suggestions, able to sharpen people’s intelligence.
Today I am very pleased when a collaborator asks me to move or take a work of art to have it close to him: this comforts me that the attention and the interest is awake and that probably this person will bring this experience also in other contexts of his life.
I believe that this passion, which has driven me over the years to be very attentive to artistic novelties in order to continue to improve the family collection, has also passed to my children, who are also already active in the art world.
“No name” represents a piece of my collection: these are mostly works that I had in my archives and that were no longer among those I exhibit in my home or company, but that I felt demanded a space of their own.
The morsasco castle was an opportunity to bring them back into view, and I am grateful to Franca and Aldo for this, because when I saw some of the works, especially those from the 70s and 80s, I remembered my father. Many of them have a dedication by the artist on the back, like the Mario Schifano in the exhibition, and it was like opening a drawer of memory: it made me feel a little more dated, but it also gave me back the sense of my family, of working with seriousness and passion, as my father did, and reconfirmed the importance of knowing how to transmit beauty to those around us and to those who will come after us.
Marco Genzini
Milan, July 2018
Associazione di promozione
sociale e culturale Castello di Morsasco
CF 90019400069
Tel: +39 334 3769833
Mail: castellodimorsasco@gmail.com
Castello di Giarole (AL)
Castello di Piovera (AL)
Castello di Monastero Bormida (AT)
Castello di Monticello d’Alba (CN)
Photo credits: Massimiliano Camera, Andrea Chiesa, Marck Cooper, Angelo Durante, Loris Di Falco, Debora Garritani, Paolo Perrone, Fabio Polosa, Daniele Serra, Costanzo Cocuzza, Laura Ferrari, Fraintesa. Powered by: Net-Uno