PIERO GILARDI

Turin 27/12/1967

Dear Tommaso,

On Saturday 24/12 we went as a group to a collector called Marcello Levi; he is enthusiastic about the idea of the permanent exhibition-deposit, financed by a group of people who tax themselves 10,000 a month; we talked at length about the project that needs to be carried out before the biennial. 

We have all filled out a letter together, with a cost of a statute, which we will take to those who will be taxed for a period of two years and with the possibility of choosing a job for themselves at the end; Levi gave us the names of six people who were directly approached by him; we have a dozen; Levi is interested as of now in placing an advertisement in the newspaper to find the venue; he is absolutely in favor of the type of approach we have proposed to him: the artists at the beginning will be those ten who work in Turin realistically Anselmo, Boetti, Merz, Piacentino, Pistoletto, Gilardi, Paolini, Mondino, Nespolo, Torio; the administrative decisions and artistic choices are entrusted to Sperone, Tommaso Trini and Gilardi, since we are the ones who put the energy to start and who give a damn about being democratic with an undergrowth of false avant-garde, but above all because we know what the idea is that allows us to enter the discourse of artistic research at an international level. The name of the venue is DEPOSITO D´ ARTE PRESENTE. Now please let us know if you will follow the preparations so that we understand if you can accept and if you can give us advice as of now. If you are still thinking of submitting those fox texts please send them to me by post. I would like to correct ‘TI WITH ZERO’, not only beautiful, fantastic! Both in form, a magical narrative that gives speculations concreteness, and in content: the primary dimension!, as I have never perceived it so clearly and concretely. I wrote a five-page letter to Calvino.

I hope you continue to like the idea of leaving for Paris on Saturday 6/1/1968 in the evening (11.45) to meet up the next day with Van Ellen and go to Amsterdam.

Goodbye Clino and goodbye to you.

Piero Gilardi