Renowned art collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s has amassed over 1,500 works, spanning jewellery, costume, photography, and contemporary art, including pieces by renowned artists such as Maurizio Cattelan, Sarah Lucas, and Cindy Sherman. Driven by a desire to share the work of her favourite artists with the public, she founded the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin in 1995. Today, it is recognised internationally as a leading exhibition and cultural production centre.

Now, as the Fondazione celebrates its 30th anniversary, Patrizia reflects on three decades of exhibitions, collaborations, and artistic dialogue. With major shows, new commissions, and international projects marking the milestone, 2025 is both a celebration and a step into the future. Here, she shares her thoughts with The Cultivist on the journey so far and what lies ahead.

Renowned art collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s has amassed over 1,500 works, spanning jewellery, costume, photography, and contemporary art, including pieces by renowned artists such as Maurizio Cattelan, Sarah Lucas, and Cindy Sherman. Driven by a desire to share the work of her favourite artists with the public, she founded the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin in 1995. Today, it is recognised internationally as a leading exhibition and cultural production centre.

Now, as the Fondazione celebrates its 30th anniversary, Patrizia reflects on three decades of exhibitions, collaborations, and artistic dialogue. With major shows, new commissions, and international projects marking the milestone, 2025 is both a celebration and a step into the future. Here, she shares her thoughts with The Cultivist on the journey so far and what lies ahead.

What criteria do you prioritize when selecting pieces for your collection and how has this evolved since you began collecting in the 90s?

My journey began with a trip to London in 1992 and the incipit of my collection is closely linked to the studio-visits I made then. I will always remember the visit to Anish Kapoor's studio, among his extraordinary sculptures: that memory has the value of a real imprinting for me, determining the way I have been choosing and collecting works ever since. Even today, my collection is based on a dialogue with the artist and an in-depth knowledge of his research. Initially, I structured the collection around a number of strands: Italian art, photography, women's art, the British scene and the Californian scene. This systematic approach stems from my education, with my university studies in economics, and my family's entrepreneurial tradition. Over time, the grid has softened in favour of a broader range of interests, determined by the course of art itself, by the noticeable enlargement of the artistic audience, which is increasingly open and global.

If you could select one artwork to represent each decade you have been collecting, what would they be and why?

It is not simple. I tend to think of my collection through groups of works, almost like families within the collection. I hardly ever think in terms of individual works, but I now try to identify four of them, taking into account not only their formal value but also their broader function. For the 1990s, Maurizio Cattelan's Bidibidobidiboo, the famous suicidal squirrel, lying on a toy kitchen table. It is one of the iconic works in the collection, ironic and at the same time tragic and edgy. I bought it during a Cattelan solo exhibition in London: I was literally captured by that powerful miniature scene and on the other hand I felt the need to bring it back to Italy. Bidibidobidiboo is one of the exemplary pieces of Italian art.

The 2000s for me began in 1999 with Electric Earth by Doug Aitken, a memorable video installation exhibited at the Venice Biennale curated that year by Harald Szeemann. This was the first major production supported by Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, in a way that we still support artists today, by financing works destined for major exhibitions such as the Biennials and Documenta. The production was followed by the acquisition of the work, now recognised as one of the significant chapters in the history of moving images. I was delighted when in 2016 Doug chose to title his solo show at Moca in Los Angeles Electric Earth.

For the 2010s, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's Switcher, an oil on canvas from 2013. In the history of the collection, the acquisition of this painting confirms the continued focus on the research of women artists, marks my new interest in contemporary painting and in particular in those approaches oriented towards the deconstruction of the canons and genres of Western art history.

For the 2020s, Aletheia, on-vergeten by Berlinde de Bruyckere, the work that gave its title to the Belgian artist's entire solo exhibition, which opened at the Foundation in November 2019. Produced and then acquired, the installation was conceived for the Foundation's spaces, starting from a project born out of the confrontation between the artist, the institution's curators and its architecture, as was the case for Adrian Villar-Rojas' solo exhibition in 2015 and then for those of Paulina Olowska in 2023 and Mark Manders in 2024.

How have the artists you have met shaped your understanding of global social and political issues?

The artists we have met and supported at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo have played a fundamental role in shaping our understanding of global social and political issues. Contemporary art has an extraordinary capacity to intercept the urgencies of our time, offering new insights into complex issues such as identity, human rights, migration, inequality, ecology and the relationship between technology and power. Each exhibition at the Foundation is an opportunity to explore how art can decipher our time. Artists such as Wael Shawky and Thomas Hirschhorn have helped us to gain a deeper understanding of issues related to colonialism, political activism, historical memory and the construction of power. I believe our role as an institution is to create a context in which these voices can emerge and engage with the public, offering critical tools to read the reality around us.

How do you feel about the rise of AI generative art and what part does or will it play in your collection?

Generative art and artificial intelligence are profoundly redefining the way we conceive creativity and the role of the artist. At Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo we have always tried to explore the new frontiers of artistic production and the dialogue between art and technology has become central. Artists such as Ian Cheng and Martine Syms have shown us how AI can be not only a tool but also an active subject, capable of generating narratives and reflections on our society. Ian Cheng, with works such as Emissaries and BOB (Bag of Beliefs), has created ever-evolving digital ecosystems in which artificial intelligence develops its own behaviours, responding to the environment and viewers. His work asks crucial questions about the nature of consciousness and the relationship between man and machine, issues that are redefining our age. Similarly, Martine Syms, with her use of AI to analyse language, identity and representation in the media, offers a critical perspective on digital culture and the way technology shapes our perception of ourselves and others. These works are not just technological experiments but tools through which artists reflect on fundamental questions: the autonomy of the work, the control of algorithms, the future of artificial intelligence in our everyday lives. I believe it is essential to support these languages because they allow us to question how technology is redefining the human experience. Our mission, as an institution, is to accompany the public in this exploration, creating spaces for discussion about a future that is already present.

What can you share about the upcoming show in October to mark the 30th anniversary and what drew you to the artists who have been chosen to present solo exhibitions?

We will celebrate 30 years of the Foundation through a selection of works from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection. It will be an opportunity to reflect on all that the Foundation has built up over the years, from support for artists, to institutional support for the art scene in Italy; from attention to the public with the cultural mediation and educational department, to the training of new generations of Italian and international curators.

Among the artists present will be Doug Aitken, Ian Cheng, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Ragnar Kjartansson, Josh Kline, Simone Leigh, Sarah Lucas, Helen Marten, Katja Novitskova, Andra Ursuta, Adrian Villar-Rojas... and many others.

Looking back on the past three decades, which moments stand out as the most significant? And what do you hope the Foundation will accomplish in the next 30 years?

The inauguration of our premises in Turin in 2002 was a fundamental step: with the building designed by architect Claudio Silvestrin, we built a space dedicated to artistic research and production, where the contemporary could be experienced, discussed and shared.

In 2004, with an entire year of programming gathered under the title ‘Donna’ (Woman), we proposed a rich calendar on the theme of the feminine in contemporary art, with conferences and exhibitions, including a solo show by Carol Rama. In 2008, well in advance of the current debate on climate change, we opened Greenwashing, a group exhibition of 25 international artists that represented the culmination of the Environment cycle, a year of exhibitions, meetings, projects and workshops dedicated to the crucial theme of ecology. In 2015, Renaissance, the first Italian solo exhibition by Adrian Villar Roja, transformed the entire Turin venue into a monumental, immersive, site-specific installation full of pathos, entirely produced by the Foundation.

Another crucial moment was the launch of the Young Curators Residency Programme in 2006, which allowed young international curators to get to know the Italian art scene, creating global connections. From this experience, CAMPO was born in 2012, a unique programme in Italy for curatorial training, which has helped to build a new generation of professionals in our country. I also look forward to the inauguration, in 2019, of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Art Park in Guarene, not far from Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, our historic headquarters since 1997. For the next thirty years, my wish is for the Foundation to continue to be a laboratory of ideas, capable of intercepting the urgencies of the present and imagining the future. I would like it to remain a point of reference for emerging artists and curators, an open, accessible place where the public can find tools to read the contemporary.

Finally, what is the most important thing you have learnt about collecting or the art world in the 30 years?

I learnt that collecting contemporary art is not just a matter of acquiring works but is a constant commitment to artists and their research. A few years after I started collecting, it was this awareness that led me to create the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in 1995, a space open to the public dimension, in which I was able to interpret active and committed collecting. The Foundation has never been a museum for my personal collection but a place for experimentation and research, where art can be lived as a shared experience and not as an object to be admired from a distance. If there is one thing these thirty years have taught me, it is that the art world is in constant motion and that our task is to remain curious, open and ready to question ourselves. Only in this way can we continue to give meaning to our role, as collectors, as institutions and as interlocutors and promoters of contemporary culture.