Stefano Arienti: The Stefano Arienti Archive Association

The Stefano Arienti Archive Association E.T.S., established in 2026 at the initiative of Stefano Arienti, is based in Milan, at via Canelli 25. It pursues no profit and aims to safeguard the artist’s work, promote it, and spread awareness. The Association specifically handles the archiving and cataloging of Stefano Arienti’s works, manages his archive (consisting of paper and digital materials collected by the artist during his career), and promotes initiatives aimed at deepening understanding of his work. The President of the Association is Stefano Arienti, the Vice President is Gianni Rosei, and the Director is Ilaria Bernardi. The first public activity developed by the Association is the creation of the website https://www.stefanoarienti.it, launched online in May 2026. “Given the number of images of my works and exhibitions that anyone can easily find online today,” explains Stefano Arienti, “I want my website to mainly contain texts, minimizing illustrations, in order to provide an exclusively critical insight into my work. To pursue this purpose, I also prefer that there be no news section included. Additionally, since I am Italian, I want my website to initially be published only in Italian.” On the site, it is also possible to read the following text:

The encounter with the unknown often starts precisely from there, from an embarrassing feeling of discomfort in front of what we did not expect.

Is it the same feeling of discomfort as when witnessing an unexpected performance?

Yes, secretly gathering, collecting with love, accumulating treasures always has a decisive moment: coming out into the open, displaying one’s passions.

Confusion is a spontaneous emotion that gives a sense of personal involvement, but it is often just a fleeting sensation. The first impression is what matters in the logic of the show, but more easily than it seems, the first impression is easily replaced by a more stable appreciation, which arises precisely from the need for a second look, to discover its solidity, whether it was positive, or to assess its qualities, if it was based on a mix of contrasting sensations.

One can remain indifferent and move on, but curiosity often prevails, and the contagion of passions that led to that spectacle, can break through, even bit by bit.

Artists spend their lives gathering their passions to give them a form to showcase. New works? Not always so new, but renewed by the pleasure of creating more. Their collections originate from anything, including art itself. Or rather, let’s not forget those fetishes that, collected for us by dedicated collectors and institutions, become the still-present body of artistic pleasures.

The moment of showing intentionally must have something festive about it and always be of exemplary clarity. To avoid the risk of displaying signs of a violent and ruthless act, like discovering a pile of stolen goods. That is why the Carabinieri display their recoveries in good order, to make up for the disappointment of the plunder.

It may be enough to align carefully, without setting in motion hierarchies of value. Put everything, because there was really everything.

The logic of display can stop at this first level of happy recovery. Giving up the lavish and elegant frames of works placed on the altar, praised in their somewhat stiff and a bit too official brilliance, those few right pieces in the right prominence.

According to an archaeological excavation, it can be an outcrop of precious and unpublished artifacts. There must be the happiness of seeing again with new eyes what time has kept good for us.

S. Arienti, From Disconcertment to Passion, in –2+3: Stefano Arienti, Massimo Bartolini: La Collezione di Museion, (Stefano Arienti, Massimo Bartolini: The Museion Collection), exhibition catalog curated by L. Ragaglia and F. Carazzato (Museion, Bolzano, October 31, 2010 – October 16, 2011), curated by L. Ragaglia and F. Carazzato, Museion, Bolzano, 2011, pp. 42-43.

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Stefano Arienti

Stefano Arienti was born in Asola, in the province of Mantua, in 1961. A graduate in agriculture, he made his debut as an artist in the mid-1980s in Milan, where he lives and works.

Among the numerous international exhibitions he participated in are: Venice Biennale. Open (1990); Istanbul Biennale (1992); Cocido y Crudo, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid (1994); XII Rome Quadriennale, Rome (1996); Made in Italy, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva and ICA, London (1997); Gwangju Biennale (2008); Italics, Palazzo Grassi, Venice and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2008); Decorum. Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris and Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2013-2014); Ennesima, Triennale, Palazzo dell’Arte, Milan (2015); Wall to Wall, MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland (2016); The Sculpture Park at Jaigarh, Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur (2025).

Among the exhibition spaces where he held the most significant solo shows are: MAXXI, Rome (2004); Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Turin (2005); Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (2007); Querini Stampalia Foundation, Venice (2008); MAMbo, Bologna (with Cesare Pietroiusti, 2008); Palazzo Ducale, Mantua (2009); Museion, Bolzano (with Massimo Bartolini, 2011); Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (2012); Palazzo Te, Mantua (2016); Civic Gallery of Modena (2017); Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art, Genoa (2017); Chiostri di Sant’Eustorgio, Milan (2019); Civic Gallery of Trento (2021); The Drawing Hall, Grassobbio, BG (2022); Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery, San Marino (2022); Villa Carlotta, Tremezzina, CO (2023); Palazzo Marchi, Parma (2025).

Archivio Arte Contemporanea
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