The cups ofIlly Art Collection celebrate their first thirty years. And, for the occasion, they will be exhibited until June 30 at the 59th International Art Exhibition in Venice (the iconic Biennial).
The history of Illy Art Collection
These have been three decades in which the famous cup designed in 1991 by Matteo Thun he has lived endless lives. Real sacred monsters of the caliber of Jeff Koons, William Kentridge, Sebastiao Salgado, Francis Ford Coppola, Alanise Morrissette and Pedro Almodovar have reinterpreted it, transforming it into a art and collector's item. Thanks to their ideas, the Illy Art Collection is considered one of the largest collections of contemporary art in the world. Just as Cristina Socchia, illycaffè CEO, tells us, it was 1991 when Ernesto Illy wrote a 51-page brief in which he described the perfect cup. Later he contacted Matteo Thun, asking him to create the first (and now known to all) white cup with red logo. Socchia also wanted to add that illycaffè did not want to stop at that point, and subsequently allowed the greatest contemporary artists to express themselves on the cup as if it were a blank canvas.
What do we know about the exposure
The exhibition that will host the iconic cups will be set up in the greenhouse of the Royal Gardens di Venezia. It will consist of ben 459 different cups arranged like flowers, belonging to 114 collections. However, the exhibition will not be limited only to the collections of cups belonging to the past. It will be enriched and completed by a new Art Collection designed by six artists - carefully chosen among the exhibitors of the Biennale - by the curator Cecilia Alemanni. Their names? Cecilia Vicuna, Felipe Baeza, Precious Okoyomon, Giulia Cenci, Alexandra Pirici and Aki Sasamoto. Just Alemanni, when asked "but how much art can go into a cup of coffee?”He replied stating that he wanted to include poetry in the exhibition through artists such as Cecilia Vicuna and Precious Okoyomon, but also irony through the art of Aki Sasmoto.
Featured photo taken from Illy's Facebook page
