Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo: “Standing before Anish Kapoor, I decided to become a collector”

London, May 1992: it’s raining, the sky is low, and it takes about an hour’s drive to reach the studio. Accompanying her is Rosangela Cochrane, an “experienced friend and collector,” who introduces her to Lisson Gallery and its founder, Nicholas Logsdail. “Nicholas had prepared a programme of studio visits with some of his artists.” The first, she recalls, “was with Anish Kapoor.”

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

“It remains a very vivid memory,” she says, “less about a specific work than about the intense emotions of that first journey into contemporary art.”

A vast loft awaits her, the works laid out across the floor, scattered throughout the space. “I found myself in the middle of a constellation of small sculptures covered in blue, red and yellow pigment.” They were part of the 1000 Names series: “I can still see them vividly.” “Then Anish began to speak about them. As he spoke, his energy was palpable, profound.” What overwhelmed her was “a powerful, unforgettable emotion,” what she describes as “a real imprinting.” “It was there, in that precise moment, that I decided to become a collector.”

That personal “imprinting” marks the beginning of a trajectory that, within a few years, would shift from an individual gesture to an institutional framework, transforming an intimate experience into a structure capable of shaping the art system.

“I chose to collect contemporary art. They are our contemporaries, conceived by artists who live in the same time as we do.” It was never just a matter of taste. “They speak. They speak a common language, poised between the present and the future.” More than thirty years have passed since that grey day in London. The Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection has grown alongside her, establishing her as one of the most influential collectors of our time. What has sustained it, she says, has been encounters and dialogue rather than rigid strategies. “Collecting is a form of exploration; it allows the collector to draw their own map of the world.” If at first this map is personal, over time it becomes a cartography capable of shaping visibility, careers, and artistic geographies. A responsibility that entails not only sensitivity, but also a clear political vision of the contemporary.

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Initially, she explains, “I structured the collection around a number of strands: Italian art, photography, women artists, the British scene and the Californian scene.” Over time, however, “the grid softened in favour of a broader range of interests,” following “the course of art itself,” “the widening of the artistic field, increasingly open and global,” and the emergence of urgent issues such as “the environment, rights, relationships between cultures and inclusion.” Yet every collection, even when it presents itself as an open map, inevitably contributes to defining a canon. Over time, selection becomes narrative, and narrative turns into criterion. Today, “I experience my collection as a single, long narrative that unfolds through seasons, changes, encounters and discoveries.” It is “a red thread that connects my biography to that of the artists, to the life of the cities where they live, and to the atmospheres of the studios where they work.”

When asked how she chooses what to acquire, she replies, “The principle that guides my collecting practice is dialogue with the artist, a necessary premise for understanding their work and research.” That is where everything begins: “the first step in sustaining, over time, an action directed toward a single project, the production of a work, or an exhibition.”

In a time when collecting is increasingly intertwined with financial and speculative dynamics, her emphasis on dialogue and project-based commitment acquires a significance that goes beyond the personal sphere, calling into question the very role of the collector within the system. If asked why she does it, the answer shifts in scale. “Art trains us in curiosity, complexity, questions and momentum.” She adds, “It has taught me to be open, to hold together plans, programmes and goals with what I do not yet know — with what is still capable of surprising me.”

It was 1995 when she realised that the enthusiasm of a private choice could become a structure capable of engaging a wider public: “So I decided to found the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.” “The Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo was born out of my passion for art and my desire to channel it into an organised and professional activity, to be shared with artists, audiences, the local community, and visitors from Italy and around the world.” The decision also grew out of an awareness of a gap. “As a collector, I soon came into contact with international institutions dedicated to contemporary art and began to notice the lack of comparable structures in Italy. I understood that there was still much to be done.” In those years, she explains, “what was missing above all were intermediate institutions devoted to younger generations of artists,” spaces that were “flexible, innovative and experimental,” capable of supporting their research while it was still unfolding. “A foundation should not simply ‘show’ — it must be willing to take the risk of experimentation.”

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Today the Foundation is both collection and production, structure and laboratory. It operates across several locations: Turin, where the centre designed by Claudio Silvestrin stands in the San Paolo district; Guarene, with Palazzo Re Rebaudengo nestled in the Roero hills; Madrid, where the Fundación has been active since 2017 with exhibitions staged across the city; and soon Venice, with its new headquarters on the Island of San Giacomo.

The decisive step, she explains, remains the opening of the Turin venue in 2002. “That was the moment when I truly understood that the initial idea — born out of a personal passion for contemporary art — could become a public, open project, capable of shaping the cultural landscape and engaging in dialogue with a broader community.”

At this point, the focus is no longer only the Foundation, but the construction of a broader system capable of supporting and advancing the work of the artists of our time. “I strongly believe in the partnership between the public and private sectors,” she says. “I have committed myself to building an ongoing relationship between the two spheres, convinced that it is essential to the vitality and proper functioning of our ecosystem.” In a context such as Italy’s, where contemporary art has often found a more stable engine in the private sphere than in public institutions, figures like Sandretto Re Rebaudengo inevitably become central.

This centrality, while it fills a structural gap, also makes visible how much the cultural system continues to rely on the vision and continuity of individual personalities, with all that this entails in terms of balance and responsibility. Looking at the Italian context, she adds, “I would not speak of failures, but of decisive changes, significant progress, and improvements achieved over the past decades.” “We can count, first and foremost, on a generation of determined artists — ready to pursue international careers, ready to travel and engage with the world, capable of developing original research, distinct languages, and profound discourse.”

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

In 2007, the Young Curators Residency Programme was launched, “designed to bring our artists into close contact with young international curators — a journey through Italy that culminates in an exhibition of Italian artists.” In 2014 came the establishment of the Contemporary Art Foundations Committee. In 2017, the Italian Council took shape. In 2021, the programme Bel Paese. Promoting Italian Art Around the World further strengthened this trajectory. The year 2025 marks the Foundation’s thirtieth anniversary. The title chosen for the celebratory exhibitions already reads like a manifesto: “News from the Near Future”. 

The next challenge is 2027, when the project Alba Capital of Contemporary Art will see her personally involved as one of the key figures behind its conception and strategic direction. “Alba Capital of Contemporary Art 2027 was born from a poetic and very clear image encapsulated in the title “The Wind Factories”, which we drew from two paintings by Pinot Gallizio.” It is a title that, she explains, “evokes a landscape in which art spreads.” “It is a metaphor for a territory that generates movement, thought, transformation — a territory that becomes an open laboratory, where culture spreads like air: invisible, yet essential.”

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

The model of Alba 2027 positions contemporary art as a strategic tool to rethink places, build new relationships, foster exchange and knowledge, and consolidate the city’s international visibility. The programme is extensive and multifaceted. The real challenge will be to turn this ambition into a lasting structural transformation — one that moves beyond celebration and succeeds in embedding a truly sustainable model within the territory. “The most significant directions for the territory are those that look to the long term: the creation of a lasting cultural and productive ecosystem, internationalisation as genuine exchange, the development of audiences, and a dialogue between art, landscape, and community.”

“The legacy I hope for most is the creation of the Langhe Biennial — an international contemporary art event capable of taking root in the territory and projecting it onto the global stage, leaving a tangible and lasting impact.” She concludes with the image that best encapsulates her vision: “Contemporary art is like pollen, or a seed carried by the wind, capable of being spread, sown, and multiplied."