The BM Fund was established by a group of personalities from the artistic, cultural and scientific world, close to the artists Barotte and Madau, and is chaired by Madau herself, who is also the artistic director of the Fund’s activities.
Maria Cristina MADAU
Multidisciplinary artist graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, since 1977 she has pursued her studies in dance, theatre and plastic arts between Italy and France. She has directed opera and theatre productions as well as artistic collaborations on the most prestigious international stages. At the same time, she has piloted artistic-research and social-art projects, in collaboration with public institutions, penitentiary centres and psychiatric hospitals. After a long period dedicated to theatre and opera, she has then resumed her research as a visual artist, also creating collective visual arts projects. A research work based on a transversal vision of art has been her earmark since the beginning of her career; many of her artistic and humanistic studies have been based on this topic. Since 2014 her interest has mainly focused on artistic direction and the development and implementation of artistic projects with philosophical themes.
Françoise COLAS DUSSAUSSOY
She spent her career in a large industrial energy group that developed internationally at the same time. She enriched her early engineering education in the fields of project organization and management, economics and finance, auditing and European institutions. Her direct experience in China made her aware of the importance of France’s position within the European Union, while her audit assignments in several European subsidiaries and her strategic analysis functions for European affairs gave her a concrete European experience. She was elevated to the rank of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2016 upon proposal of Michel Sapin, Minister of Economy. From 2017 to 2022 she was President of the Sakura Endowment Fund, founded by Mrs Muriel Pénicaud and dedicated to social art.
Franco SCHENA
After living the first half of his life between Sardinia and Lombardy, Franco Schena has lived in Paris since 1989, where he worked for 30 years at ESA (European Space Agency) as Financial Controller of the Scientific Program and Earth Observation, then Treasurer and Responsible for Finances and Accounting. He is a member of the Board of Directors of international associations of which he is the treasurer.
Michele PILI
He has developed his career around the planning and implementation of artistic and cultural events at an international level. Graduated in Visual Arts at the IUAV University of Venice, he has been responsible for cultural initiatives at the Institut Français in Milan, where he curated art exhibitions, concerts, debates and the film season. Since 2020 he has held the role of Project Manager for the Wallonie-Brussels Federation, via the Belgian Embassy in Milan. In his career there are also independent curation projects for art exhibitions and some experience in staging operas.
Paolo MADAU
Paolo Madau was born in Cagliari on 4th June, 1989. After completing his classical studies in Cagliari, he studied economics and management in Rome at the Università Luiss ‘Guido Carli’. Now he works as a Sales Manager within a company in the hospital supplies sector, in the field of tumour diagnostics. He has cultivated his interest in contemporary art from a young age.
Chiara GATTI
Chiara Gatti, art historian and critic, is the director of the MAN Museum in Nuoro. She has been writing for the cultural pages of La Repubblica, Robinson, il Venerdì for twenty years. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Museo di Villa dei Cedri in Bellinzona (Chieti, Italy), and is a scientific consultant for Monte Verità in Ascona (Chieti, Italy). She has been the overseer for the museographic and museological project for the start-up of Palazzo Verbania in Luino (Varese, Italy) with the opening of Vittorio Sereni’s historical archive to the public. She has taught at the Università Cattolica, the Università dell’Insubria, the Accademia di Venezia and has collaborated since 2019 with the University of Palermo for research and teaching activities. She is currently engaged in a research project for the Centre Pompidou in Paris dedicated to the MAC, Movimento Arte Concreta (Concrete Art Movement). She has curated institutional exhibitions for the GAMeC in Bergamo, the Museo Novecento in Florence, the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice, the Museo Archeologico Regionale in Aosta, the Pinacothèque of Paris, Villa Panza in Varese. For the MAN Museum in Nuoro she curated the exhibitions Giacometti e l’arcaico, L’elica e la luce and Le futuriste 1912-1944. She has written L’arte non è faccenda di persone perbene in collaboration with Lea Vergine, published by Rizzoli in 2016.
Federico Crimi
Curator of the Civico Museo Parisi Valle di Maccagno. He was responsible for the Vittorio Sereni and Piero Chiara’s literary archives in Luino (2020-2021). He is a scientific cataloguer of the Italian for the national censuses of ecclesiastical cultural heritage (catalogue of Episcopal Conference works of art) and of worship buildings (architecture catalogue). He deals with history and urban/landscape transformations on Lake Maggiore. He has essays and monographs on the subject to his credit. He collaborates with public and private bodies for the cataloguing and valorisation of cultural heritage. He has surveyed a corpus of 250 travel drawings in North Italy by J.M. William Turner for the London Tate Britain as part of the systematic review of the Turner Bequest collection.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President and Artistic Director: Maria Cristina MADAU
Secretary: Françoise COLAS DUSSAUSSOY
Treasurer: Francesco SCHENA
Administrator: Michele PILI
Advisor: Paolo MADAU
–
Scientific and artistic consultants
Chiara GATTI – Curator and Director of the Man Museum in Nuoro
Federico CRIMI – Archivist and Curator of the Museo Parisi in Maccagno
Massimo BOTTINO – Artist and Art Director