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Gulls, Gunpowder and Avant-Garde Art: Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s Venetian Dream
The renowned Italian collector offers a tour of the Venetian island that’s being transformed into a centre for contemporary art.
O n a still morning this April a pink haze was seen floating over the Venice Lagoon, causing boats to cut their engines and passengers to gaze over the water. During the opening week of this year’s Venice Biennale, one of the most extraordinary sights was an eruption of blushing clouds of rosy smoke over the island of San Giacomo in Paluda, a former monastic retreat that is now being turned into a cultural centre by the enterprising Turin-based collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.
The colourful sky was just one aspect of “‘Pinky Pinky Good’: San Giacomo’s Leap into Tomorrow” – a shamanic performance by the South Korean artist and choreographer Eun-Me Ahn and members of her dance company. Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, this ritual blessing – what Eun-Me called an “encounterface performance” – combined music, dance, smoke, mirror balls, wooden dolls and bubble guns.
Water taxis decanted curators, collectors and critics for the latest instalment in an idiosyncratic story of artistic patronage: Patrizia hosts an exhibition space and sculpture park at the Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, the family’s 18th-century home in Guarene overlooking the Piedmont vineyards; and, most importantly, she founded a purpose-built contemporary art museum in Turin in 2002, where she has continued to champion the work of young artists. Today, the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection numbers more than 1,000 works.
This year’s performance marks the halfway point in the island’s regeneration. San Giacomo, which measures some 12,500 square metres and was abandoned in the 1960s, is due to open to the public in 2026 and will eventually hold two large galleries, artist residencies and a private home for the Re Rebaudengo family. The art centre will run an educational programme for schools and be free for visitors.
The day after the performance I met with Patrizia in the bar of the Hotel Metropole, a short walk from Piazza San Marco, to discuss the island’s unlikely history and how the site plays into her distinctive vision for the pursuit and understanding of contemporary art and culture.
How did the idea to transform San Giacomo into an art centre come about?
I am Italian and, like all Italians, I love Venice so much. I started to think of having a space in Venezia many years ago. And then we started Torino, and we started our palazzo in Guarene, so we had so many projects. But then we found this island that was for sale from the government – they buy and sell buildings belonging to the city or the region, or parks that are abandoned.
The first time we arrived, we couldn’t see the buildings because of the trees and vegetation. There were mosquitoes, seagulls. It was terrible. But we saw on the map that there were the three buildings plus other small buildings. And so we decided to buy. Nature is so strong. The first big discovery was the moment in which we started to remove the trees and started to see the buildings.
Can I ask what the island cost?
Ha. Some millions. It was a long process to get all the different permissions.
I understand San Giacomo has a particularly unusual past?
The island has a fantastic story. It was a church and a monastery, then it was a place for pilgrims, then was an orchard and then it was a vineyard. Very close is another island in which they have artichokes and wine. In fact, we put a little bit of vineyard between the buildings. The stories are amazing. During the Napoleonic period, it was a garrison. They used the three buildings as gunpowder warehouses. In fact, there are hills between the two; if one exploded it was a barrier in order to save the other one.
And when Jerzy Grotowski, the famous Polish theatre director, was invited to Venice in 1975, he decided to use San Giacomo as the place in which to perform and organize plays. They used the island without electricity, without water.
What are the challenges with the restoration?
When we bought the island, we found a well. So, we are very lucky because we have water, but not electricity. My husband has a company in renewable energy. We will use all clean energy to power the island. It’s also good because this is a way for my husband and I to work on a project together. He’s working on the energy part; I’m working on the art part.
When you are on an island, sometimes it’s a little bit more difficult to organize having people. For example, on Tuesday it started raining and was windy, and Eun-Me and the performers – around 20 people – couldn’t come back. They were stuck there. Obviously, sometimes you don’t have the freedom to move. But the island is fantastic. I have to say that I’m so happy to have this island. It’s a nice place, it’s nice to see the sunset, it’s nice to wake up with the water all around you.
So you can already stay there overnight?
We started to sleep and to live on the island during the last biennale, two years ago. The first event that we organized was then. We invited Jota Mombaça, the Brazilian artist, and she made a performance drawn from the ocean, talking about the water, climate change and so on.
What are your plans for San Giacomo’s programme?
I’m very positive and optimistic that there will be two spaces that are really amazing. I’m sure that we can show video, film installation, paintings, photography, sculpture and so on. The idea is to have an exhibition plan and sometimes to show the collection. Because we show it all over the world – Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Whitechapel Gallery in London. But I think we will always bring attention to performances there. This is what I would like to keep and maintain.
For me it is important to have big moments on the island during moments important for Venice. I really would love to find a way to collaborate on different events, not only for contemporary art but also for theatre and cinema. The island is a dream, it’s a dream that I finally realized.
