VANESSA BEECROFT is a cyclone. Working with her on a performance and above all paying the costs, is like making a film with Madonna. She dictates the rules of the game, a game filled with references to the history of the place and to art. The girls that appear on the set like sculptures follow strict rules that are very precise, though not impossible. Anyone working on a performance organised by Beecroft does not forget it easily.
This one in Venice at the Rialto fish market on was particularly spectacular, with the Author who moves between the bodies spraying blood like Pollock dripping paint. Some people find this series beautiful but difficult (because of the blood). Go for it! After Nitsch and his theatre of orgies and mysteries, this is a work for the drawing room…
DANIEL BUREN was the first artist that I called before I opened the gallery. I went to Paris and I asked him for an exhibition. He said: "Open your gallery, send me invitations, I'll see what you do and in three years I'll tell you if we'll work together or not…" He called me after about a year. I must have done alright.
Since then we have covered a lot of ground together and he has been one of the most influential artists in my programme. From him I learned to consider works in relation to the given space, set up exhibitions in line with the desires of the artist, respect the rules that they dictate. He taught me that the gallery is an open and neutral space for housing all kinds of works; he convinced me that the gallery is not based on the four walls that surround us but is in our heads.
REBECCA HORN is a redhead. She's strong. We haven't done shows together. She is an extraordinary artist but I don't think I could get on with her for very long. I prefer to have her works and not have to discuss it. I got these pieces at an auction. They are some of her best early pieces. I didn't pay very much for them but I'll sell them for a lot.
GIULIO PAOLINI is the artist who has most influenced me. Lately his practice of understatement, of standing back, of the lack of hefty protagonism, has really gripped me. Perhaps this stand of small works (small is beautiful) I owe – indirectly – to his thinking. The work shown here is one of his first, and one of the high points of his career. Almost nothing. A glance at eye level.
ETTORE SOTTSASS I liked because he lived at Filicudi, because he drew with incredible ease and great eloquence, because he toured the world with sticks, string and flags to mount and photograph architecture of dreams and needs, that here I bring your attention with the famous 'Metafore'.
I wrote him a letter to ask for an exhibition and he called me and was very informal and made everything very easy. The fifty Metafore along the walls of my gallery were fantastic. We saw each other a lot, he spoke with great tenderness, he never got annoyed with anyone, like the greats do who practice modesty having got to the top.
