3 questions for Cristiano Raimondi, curator of the ‘Villa Marlene’ exhibition at the NMNM

How did the idea for this exhibition come about?

When he visited Villa Sauber for the first time, Francesco Vezzoli was immediately taken with the difference between the outside and inside of this Belle Époque villa. For him it seemed obvious to recreate the Villa’s appearance as it would have been at the turn of the 20^th century with an elegant bourgeois interior, enhanced by mouldings, etc.  

Furthermore, this Italian artist has been working for over 15 years on the figure of Marlene Dietrich. He is particularly interested in the difference between the persona she created for the public in her films, which over the years became an icon, and the committed woman she was in private, her stand against the Nazi regime being a prime example.

What is the concept of Villa Marlene?

One must view this exhibition as a complete work that occupies the entire villa – what we call an installation. The Villa Sauber in becoming Villa Marlene can be viewed both as a residence the actress might have lived in, particularly at the end of her life when she became a recluse, and a fictional museum created after the actress’s death for all the tributes that major artists of her day might have paid her.

So what are the main works in this exhibition?

We find “historical” works by Francesco Vezzoli which forge a link between Marlene Dietrich and Anni Albers, a major figure in the Bauhaus and modern aesthetics movement, bringing together two contemporary artists, one a popular icon, the other a more intellectual reference to the era, as both were committed to fighting the drift towards Nazism. 

For this exhibition, the artist has also imagined portraits of Marlene that might have been produced by great artists; so for example we find works by Francis Bacon, René Magritte, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Tamara de Lempicka and Giorgio de Chirico mysteriously dated 2016

The Marlene Redux – A True Hollywood Series (2006) video could be the exhibition’s manifesto. The short film is inspired both by the documentary produced by Maximilian Schell about the actress and the famous American TV series A True Hollywood Story. Between fake interviews and film extracts, we actually discover an ironic and romanticised view of the life of Francesco Vezzoli, as a young artist on a meteoric rise to fame, seeking to assert himself before he too disappears like the icon who so fascinates him.