White Cube through Diplomatic Lenses - Italian ambassador to Bangladesh on Contemporary Art

White Cube through Diplomatic Lenses
Faizul Khan Tanim interviews diplomat Giorgio Guglielmino to find out the significance of contemporary art and his appreciation of the Bengali palette

Giorgio Guglielmino is one of the most peace loving diplomats residing here. An avid collector of contemporary art, a writer and most-importantly, the Italian Ambassador stationed in Bangladesh, his idea is to understand the Bengali psyche through colours and a very powerful means – contemporary art.

His art appreciation, understanding, and ability to provide constructive critique, are all part of the magnetism which allows him to connect with people of a country faster than both artists and diplomats.

The word 'contemporary' when used with art, is very tricky. It loses its meaning if one replaces the word with 'modern' and Guglielmino explains this significance with his almost 25 years of love and affection for art and through his very interesting book 'How to Look at Contemporary Art (...and like it)'. He published all together four books in Italian and the above-mentioned title is the only one which has been translated into English.

The book reveals facts about everything one ever wanted to know about contemporary art but was afraid to ask. He said, “The idea behind this book is that an art which at first sight may appear cryptic and elitist can, in fact, be explained in very simple terms by examining individual works and bringing out their personal and social aspects, which we find also in newspapers, films and in our daily lives, while avoiding the convoluted jargon of most art-historical and critical texts”.

This book closely looks at 66 significant contemporary art works across the world by as many artists of international fame, ranging from 1970 to 2008. Guglielmino describes all the various forms of contemporary art and tells the story of each artist in a simple, straightforward manner as if in a conversation among friends.

Critiques say that this book intends to show how the most recent art - the sort of art that Raphael might produce if he were alive today - can be enjoyed and appreciated to the fullest by everybody.

Guglielmino mentioned that, “I never studied art in University but always had the affinity, which is why I started collecting photography from age 30. Later I started writing for various art magazines and started collecting contemporary art pieces.”

“In my journey of being a diplomat, this greatly helped me to understand the culture, socio-political situation and much more of a country and it is indeed a very nice way of connecting with the real people just through art appreciation”, he added.

His first interaction with Bangladeshi art was through an exhibition at Panam Nagar on November 2010 by Britto, two to three weeks after he took charge of his office here. And ever since, he has been a follower, promoter and a great patronizer of our art.

He believes that Bangladesh has much to offer. The country should present its new and developed image through high-level events and exposure. And in this context, it must be mentioned that Ambassador Guglielmino was one of the key figures to initiate the process of Bangladeshi artists participating in the very prestigious Venice Biennale.

The art pieces to go to the Biennale were chosen at the exhibition held at the Italian Ambassador’s residence. “I wanted to host this event in order to have such great and diverse works of art from Bangladesh under one roof. The Venice Biennale is a great opportunity and I want Bangladesh to portray its best because this is a country of great art and culture and the whole world must know it”, said the Ambassador.

And Venice Bienalle 2011 was the first time Bangladeshi artists took part in this international event. Many believe that for the artists who participated in the Biennale, this was a stepping stone towards making their mark in the international art world and setting a precedent, which would enable local artists to take part in such events in the future and endeavour to invigorate and energise the local art scene.

Artist Hashem Khan was excited as he mentioned the participation at the Biennale. He narrated how the Bengal Foundation and the Italian Embassy have played a major role in enabling Bangladeshi artists to take part in world famous event, “It is extremely expensive to participate in the Venice Biennale and when Bangladesh's chance for participation was fading, it was lit up by the patronage, collaboration and support from the Embassy of Bangladesh in Italy, Italian Ambassador, the Italian Embassy in Bangladesh, Bengal Foundation, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bangladesh.”

Guglielmino also said that he is looking forward to Bangladesh's participation in the International Expo 2015 in Milan and the Venice Biennale 2013. According to him, the process for the Biennale should start immediately.

His patronizing will continue as he wishes to host another three day exhibition in collaboration with Bengal Gallery on the last week of January next year, highlighting contemporary artists of Chittagong.

Commenting on the contemporary art scene in the country, Guglielmino mentioned the very positive influence of a group of very creative, focused and interesting young artists. A large portion of them has interest in visual arts and are producing good pieces but there is a lack of private galleries to showcase their pieces. The Ambassador thinks that our business community should step forward to appreciate, collect, patronize and get involved with the art community, which is a practice elsewhere in the world.

He also mentioned few negative aspects of the art reality in Bangladesh, such as curators who do not give enough emphasis on presentation, the white area, the lighting around the paintings and have a tendency to put up too many pieces and clog the walls of the exhibition. In this context, the Ambassador mentioned a few tips, “There can be an experiment where in an exhibition, let there be three separate days where the art pieces will be arranged and organized by the three different actors - the curator on one day, management of the venue on the other day and the artist on a separate day – this will be an interesting way of finding out who does the best job since the artist is not the best judge of his/her work or the best person to put up a show. It should be the curator doing it with his intellectual freedom”.