Forci Art Foundation

The Forci Art Foundation was established in 2023 by Melanie and Nina van Ogtrop – art loving mother and daughter-in-law – to encourage young and emerging artists to get inspired by Forci’s regenerative philosophy and its breathtaking surroundings.

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Our Mission

Forci Art Foundation’s principal mission is to empower emerging artistic talent to create thought provoking art inspired by the Forci passion for regeneration and sustainability. By simply spreading the regenerative message through brilliant art, we aim to create a network of like minded artists, art connoisseurs, art institutions, galleries and collectors. Therefore the foundation is raising private - and public funds to enable the annual artists-in-residence program at Tenuta di Forci.

Art Residency Program

The Forci Art Foundation, guided by its Advisory Board, will select and invite annually three emerging artists, active in different media, to reside at Tenuta di Forci for up to two months. It is hoped that the artists will find inspiration in Forci’s sublime surroundings, bountiful flora and fauna and the guiding estate principles of sustainability and regeneration.

The Forci Art Foundation will cover all reasonable travel expenses and provide accommodation, including individual bedrooms and artists’ studios throughout the residency.

The Foundation will strive to create fruitful contacts between the artists and the local community by organising events and inviting internationally renowned artists, collectors, curators and other representatives of the contemporary art world.

In conjunction with the artists, the Foundation will organise an exhibition of the artworks created during the Residency; the works will be on display and available for sale during the exhibition. A share of the proceeds from each sale will benefit the Foundation, helping to perpetuate its mission. All the artworks eventually donated by the artists will become part of the Permanent Art Collection of the Forci Art Foundation, which will be on visible to the public at all times.

2024 RESIDENCY PROGRAM

Founders

Nina van Ogtrop

With an Art History degree and stints at several contemporary art galleries & Christie’s under her belt, Nina van Ogtrop decided it was time to set up her own art consultancy: Heuv Art. As an art consultant she works with private, institutional and corporate clients on building collections, exhibition programs and special projects in the young & emerging contemporary art field. Since 2019, she partnered with Melanie to curate exhibitions at Circle Gallery in Amsterdam, and starting in 2022, they've jointly overseen the Art Residency program at Tenuta di Forci.

Melanie van Ogtrop

Melanie is a French-born art collector, with a background in the art world. As an Art Historian major she joined Sotheby's & Christie’s in London and Amsterdam. After having moved to Milan she became a Junior Restorer at the Pinin Brambilla Barcilon restoration studio. Back in Amsterdam she served on the boards of the Stedelijk Museum and the Vereniging Rembrandt. In 2008 she founded Circle Gallery in Amsterdam. Back in Italy, together with her daughter-in-law Nina, she set up the Forci Art Foundation.

Advisory Board

Sofia Gotti

Sofia, a Modern and Contemporary art historian and curator, specializes in politics, feminism, and decoloniality in Latin America and the Global South. Affiliated with the University of Cambridge and Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti in Milan, she was appointed Artistic Organizer for the 60th Venice Biennale's International Art Exhibition in 2024. Gotti's research and curation span renowned institutions like Tate Modern, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea.

Bart van der Heide

Bart, a distinguished art historian and curator, currently leads Museion in Bolzano, Italy, a prominent modern and contemporary art institution. He heads the innovative Techno Humanities program, delving into crucial themes at the intersection of ecology, technology, and economics since 2020. Prior, he drove institutional change at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Kunstverein München. Van der Heide is a prolific author, contributing widely to international exhibition catalogues, monographs, and art magazines.

Hugo van Vredenburch

Hugo is a trustee of Fauna & Flora - The world’s oldest international conservation charity. He was previously chairman of Interactive Investor and CEO of the TMF Group. Earlier in his career, Hugo was a Partner at Goldman Sachs and held a variety of roles including co-heading the equity franchise in Europe, Japan and Global COO of the equity division. Currently Hugo is on the board of the international art advisory firm of Beaumont Nathan.

Annelies van der Pauw

Annelies who has been a corporate lawyer with an international law firm most of her life, is also active in the contemporary art world and held or holds positions such as the Chair of the Dutch national fund for visual arts , the chair of the supervisory board of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and board member of the AkzoNobel Art Foundation.

Alessandro Romanini

After a degree in art history, with a specialisation in cinema and videoart, Alessandro devoted himself to the curatorship of contemporary art exhibitions, film and videoart. He was president of the scientific committee of the Fondazione Ragghianti in Lucca and Director of the Miur Post-University Training Centre ‘Centro Arti Visive’ in Pietrasanta. He is currently artistic director of the cinema and art section of the Lucca Film Festival and member of the scientific committee of the Parco Nazionale della Pace di S.Anna di Stazzema. Among other events, Alessandro curated the national pavilion of Côte d'Ivoire at the Venice Biennale in 2022 and the exhibition ‘Nostalgie du Futur’ at the Dakar Biennale in 2024. He has published numerous catalogues and collaborates with art and film magazines.

Previous Artists-in-Residence

Rogier Houwen

Art Residency 2023

who photographed Forci’s magical natural surroundings accentuated by light and dark and radiating Houwen’s theme of cosmic awareness.

Clementine Robertson

Art Residency 2023

responded to Forci’s complex heritage and deep ecology by capturing the resonant hum between mountain and sea through botanical painting, sculpture and performance.

Vincent Mock

Art Residency 2023

cognisant of too many people’s lack of awareness and possibly interest in our extraordinary physical world he aimed to reconnect us to nature in a physical way and draw attention to our depleted oceans.

Ellis Holman

Art Residency 2024

During her residency, Ellis became fascinated by the textures of the rocks and cloud formations in the Italian mountains. In her research, she seeks a disconnection from society and explores the theme of Solitude and Loneliness, an emotion often associated with the mountains.

Felix Reiterer

Art Residency 2024

Felix Reiterer delved into the overlap between human and machine perceptions of the environment through the experimental technique of photogrammetry, also known as 3D scanning.

Matilde Sambo

Art Residency 2024

All the works developed and generated during her residency in Forci are the result of encounters, entanglements, knowledge and recognition. The questions structuring the artist’s research continued to emerge, so that all the works produced are related to sensory perception, the relationship of the body to space and surroundings, the definition of home and time.

Future plans

Due to major renovation work, the exhibition space dedicated to the Permanent Art Collection will reopen in 2026.
A Sculpture Garden is also to be created, to create a spontaneous intersection between nature and art.