Curaçao selection for Benetton's 'Imago Mundi'

September 17, 2013 by Curacao Art Events 0 comments

Curaçao selection for Benetton’s ‘Imago Mundi’

On Saturday morning August 24, 2013, Landhuis Bloemhof hosted a special viewing of the Curaçao selection for the Imago Mundi collection of Luciano Benetton.

Luciano Benetton (Italy, 1935) is the founder and chairman of the Benetton Group. His clothing and accessories company is active in 120 countries. He is also a well-known art collector who is now attracting a lot of attention for a unique contemporary and international art collection called Imago Mundi.

The Imago Mundi collection started by chance when a South American artist sent him 2 small 12 x 10 centimeter paintings instead of the customary business card. Benetton was struck by the originality and effectiveness of the gesture. He then started asking other artists to send him similar small ‘samples’ of their work. The collection grew rapidly and it wasn’t before long that he began to recruit curators for the different countries to actively acquire more miniatures. All these small artworks made by artists from all over the world were carefully collected and are now being exhibited in Italy. On August 28, 2013, the first Imago Mundi exhibition was opened in Venice, as part of the Venice Biennale. It contains 1,000 pieces from contemporary artists in Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

Imago Mundi is Latin for ‘the image of the world’ and is used to indicate the world map. The Benetton collection aims to map the world’s contemporary visual art status.
The collection is still growing. Benetton approaches local art curators to recommend artists from their region. Artists can create any image, in whatever medium. The only restriction is the size: it has to be 12 x 10 centimeters.

Curaçao
The selection for Curaçao, of both established and upcoming artists, was made by the three leading art galleries Landhuis Bloemhof, Gallery Alma Blou, and Mon Art Gallery. Before being shipped, the small-scale artworks were exhibited one single time at Landhuis Bloemhof.
A total of 39 artists were selected. Curaçao will be included in the soon-to-be-issued Caribbean Catalogue together with Puerto Rico, Guatemala, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic.