Umberto Vattani on the Birth of the Farnesina Collection as Lived Art Experience

In a reflection published on Artribune, former diplomat Umberto Vattani recounts the origins of the Collezione Farnesina at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome. In 1998, a bronze sculpture by Pietro Consagra was installed at the intersection of four elevators, transforming the sterile, post-1960 building into a space for contemporary art. This was followed by works from Dorazio, Accardi, Perilli, Sanfilippo, Turcato, Kounellis, Burri, Merz, Fontana, Marini, Paladino, Ruffo, Mirko, Iaconesi, and Persico. The ministry opened to the public once a month, hosting school groups and guided tours, turning art into a tool of cultural diplomacy. Vattani describes the collection as an open, living project based on loans from artists and gallerists, allowing continuous rotation. Works were chosen not as decoration but to provoke reflection: Burri's combustions evoked environmental struggle, Consolazione's faded flags foreshadowed rising nationalism, Ruffo's pierced birds spoke to fragile freedom, and Pistoletto's Etrusco with a mirror left centimeters between hand and reflection—the space and time left to avoid catastrophe. Vattani cites Antonio Spadaro's notion of art as an experience that creates new relationships between works and viewers.