CCCS - ART, PRICE AND VALUE

James Bradburne
Franziska Nori
Piroschka Dossi
Pier Luigi Sacco
Wolfgang Ullrich
Julian Stallabrass
Boris Groys

The Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina

The mission of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi is to revitalise the public spaces of Palazzo, one of Florence’s finest examples of Renaissance domestic architecture, and to establish it as an exciting, dynamic and international cultural destination for visitors of all ages and interests. Already the exhibitions held in the Palazzo’s grand spaces on the first floor have attracted international attention. The Palazzo’s courtyard now hosts a café and a permanent exhibition on the history of the Palazzo and the Strozzi family, as well as a varied programme of concerts and performances. From the outset, a key part of the Palazzo Strozzi project was to create a centre for contemporary culture at the very heart of Florence, and the Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina (CCCS) was created as platform for the different approaches and practices that characterise the production of contemporary art and culture.

The centre is located in the recently restored spaces under the magnificent courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi – known as ‘La Strozzina’ – which previously housed the cellars of this Renaissance monument, and which hosted Florence’s most important international exhibitions in the years after the Second World War until the flood of 1966. The Centre comprises eleven rooms of different sizes, approx. 850 square metres in total. The absence of natural light enables individual curators to interpret the space in new ways and makes it possible to adapt and reshape the entire environment in accordance with the settings required by the various projects. The challenge posed by the Renaissance architecture of Palazzo Strozzi for contemporary art is taken as a stimulus to stage each new event and project as though in a theatre, constantly pursuing new possibilities of artistic communication and presentation.

The current exhibition tackles an issue at the heart of contemporary culture – the relationship between art and the marketplace. One of the questions nearly every visitor asks about the objects on display when she comes to an art exhibition is ‘what are they worth?’ One the one hand, the question is meaningless – once an object enters a museum’s collection (which is where most exhibitions get their objects), it can no longer be sold. In one sense, therefore, it is priceless. The issue of value is considered by many museum professionals to be distasteful, almost profane, a consideration that besmirches the sacred ‘value-free’ temple of the museum. On the other hand, museums actively contribute to creating an object’s value, and its inclusion in an exhibition can dramatically increase an object’s worth in the art market. Far from being profane, the museum’s activities have a lot to do with value, and the moneychangers are much closer to the temple than many suspect. Even though museum objects have been withdrawn from the market, similar objects are still regularly bought and sold – by individuals, in galleries, at auction. What factors affect the market price of an object? Do certain objects have an intrinsic worth? Is value solely a measure of supply and demand? In a recent study by the Dresdner Bank, the rising average price of art at auction seems to mirror the rising number of museum visits – possibly a co-incidence, but then again, possibly not. What is sure is that the relationship explored by the exhibition Art, Price and Value is one that deserves our careful and critical attention.

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