“Cas above, so below »sang Hermes Trismegistus in the Emerald Tablet, explaining how the harmony of the Earth was also reflected in Heaven. This mystery maxim, in a building in the heart of Milan, is today more tangible than ever. Have we intrigued you? You are then invited to the new Luigi Rovati Foundationwhere collections of Etruscan treasures, kept in an underground section, alternate with splendours of contemporary art displayed in colorful noble floors (and very instagrammed).
At the Luigi Rovati Foundation ancient and modern art are mixed
Anecdote: a hermetic inspiration must also have conquered the artist Marianna Kennedy and her alchemical work As above, so below. Sculptural rose shoots on a romantic pink mirror. “We had always wanted a foundation, initially corporate and connected to art. The purpose? Studying the relationship between culture and health»Begins its president Giovanna Forlanelli, as well as general manager of the family business Rottapharm Biotech: a pharmaceutical research center in Monza founded by his father-in-law Luigi Rovati (doctor, researcher and collector, who died in 2019). Founding partner of her together with her husband Lucio (son of Luigi Rovati and current president of Rottapharm Biotech, ed) and her daughter Lucrezia, Giovanna has dedicated the last six years to this projecti, demonstrating how every lucid visionary can transform a dream into reality.
«We are all medical graduates, but since the beginning of my career I have preferred communication. My passion is contemporary art, the Etruscan one belongs to my husband: a candlestick exhibited in the basement was the first item bought after a year of marriage! The path in this museum was born from us, with a dialogue between the family and many experts. From those first 40 Etruscan finds, today we are almost 5 thousand ».
Above, Giovanna Forlanelli, 62, president of the Luigi Rovati Foundation and founder of the Johan & Levi publishing house. (Courtesy)
A break in the heart of Milan
Thus began that dialogue with the Municipality of Milan in 2015 which will lead to the purchase of the splendid Villa Bocconi Rizzoli, renovated by Mario Cucinella Architects. Here, they are the Etruscan tombs of Cerveteri to inspire the underground floor: circular rooms in stone extracted from Tuscan-Emilian quarries, chiseled with a material fluidity worthy of Kubrick atmospheres. Alternating Etruscan finds with contemporary works by William Kentridge, Lucio Fontana, Picasso or Arturo Martini.
«Every detail has been made to measure. I can already mention two moments that have repaid me for so many hardships: a lady who, thanks to the first weeks of free admission, confessed to me that she had entered a museum for the first time. Another came for the third time, for a fee, explaining that she really felt at home ».
As Above, So Below by Marianna Kennedy (2022), created as a unique piece for the Foundation. Urbanfile
The secret? An experimental approach: the result of many travels, studies and experiences, this not huge space like other museums stands out among the most avant-garde for digitization. Only in this way can archeology become contemporary. “If you tell a young man that there is an Andy Warhol, he runs straight away, certainly not if you are talking about ancient vases!” Giovanna laughs. “We want emotion. In the chaos of the city you discover a house, a garden, the quiet. This is what I look for in my travels, when to relax I enter museums where I feel immediate joy. And so with the bistro and restaurant, managed by the starred chef Andrea Aprea, we have made it even more social. A public place, even if managed by a private individual ».
«The mystery was gone, but the amazement had just begun» wrote Andy Warhol himself in Popism. And still today she would say it, wandering among spaces in which hers The Etruscan Scene: Female Ritual Dance dialogues with sculptures by Fountain, Simeti tapestries or bright works by Luigi Ontani: created ad hoc for a room where the gaze becomes intoxicated with cyclamen colors, forgetting for a moment the historicity (yes, a little mysterious) kept a few meters underground.
Etruscans in Milan
«Before the Romans there were the Etruscans. First also in having sought the unification of Italy with their Dodecapolis: we will deepen those 12 cities with meetings in 2023. Rediscovering their values can be good for everyone, it was an inclusive, open, very contemporary society: roots that need to be regained. The eight codes of the museum are also inspired by those values, indispensable for living in this “knowledge society”: technologies are a tool, man must remain at the center. When they tell me that I am a woman of science as a doctor I say no, I am a humanist! I take care of the man and not the machine, or I would have been an engineer ».
The Foundation’s Garden and Pavilion are a peaceful corner in the heart of Milan, accessible to all. © Giovanni De Sandre for the Luigi Rovati Foundation
By the way, in 2005 Forlanelli also founded a publishing house, the Johan & Levi, dedicated to art in every nuance and curiosity. Legible and enjoyable titles, even if they are niche, born after long years of travels in America in which Giovanna understands how, in Italy, contemporary art was not yet really known. «I lived it in New York in the 80s and 90s, the most intense. With his friend Alfredo de Marzio, founder of the first The Journal of Art we promised ourselves… and so it was. The first title? De Kooning’s biography: if you don’t know the person, you can’t understand what he creates in life ».
The relationship between culture and well-being, increasingly evolved, has been the subject of studies which have welcomed the directors of hospitals, Rsa and museums at Fondazone Luigi Rovati. “We want to understand why many neurological diseases benefit from it. A dream? Having general practitioners who prescribe museums, as is already the case in Belgium and Canada. Art must not be elitist, it must stimulate, trigger an interest: hundreds of ancient vases risk confusing, while a reasoned path can lead you to deepen ». Between polychrome suggestions and time travels, entering that door let us then let ourselves be guided by curiosity. After all, in Metaphysics Aristotle speaks clearly: men began to philosophize because of the wonder …
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