Countryside, The Future at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public on February 20. Lavazza’s support for the new installation continues the lasting collaboration between Lavazza and the Guggenheim Museum.
New York (February 19, 2020) – Lavazza confirms its ongoing commitment to the arts, culture and sustainability by supporting the innovative new exhibition ‘Countryside, The Future’ hosted at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. A unique and immersive installation in the iconic Rotunda, conceived for the Guggenheim Museum by architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas with AMO Director Samir Bantal, it explores radical changes in rural, remote territories outside cities, collectively identified here as ‘countryside’. Koolhaas’ original research work addresses urgent environmental, political and socioeconomic issues based on a selection of localized episodes that best forecast universal future conditions. The exhibition perfectly embraces the Guggenheim’s mission to raise awareness about global concerns and Lavazza’s goal of tackling environmental and social issues through cultural projects at international level.
“This exhibition develops the idea of a new narrative in which the countryside is a place of social, technological and environmental innovation. This idea is in line with the vision that have always underpinned Lavazza’s concrete actions towards coffee producing areas”, said Francesca Lavazza, a fourth-generation member of the family at the helm of the company and a member of the Lavazza Board of Directors. “For Lavazza, cultural innovation, environmental sustainability and protecting the communities in which we operate are signposts that point the way ahead for a responsible development. Finding in the Guggenheim a counterpart as fertile and committed as we are to imagining and building the future makes our partnership even more meaningful. We’d like to thank Rem Koolhaas once again for giving us food for serious thought. Our goal is to follow with interst cultural and artistic movements and get inspired to best approach tomorrow’s challenges”.
Finding convergence between different disciplines and creating dialogue and exchange between apparently distant worlds is part of the methodology that encourages Lavazza to take a systematic approach through excellent partnerships, in line with SDG 17 of the UN 2030 Agenda. Lavazza’s concern with social and environmental issues is behind its decision in 2019 to realize the TOward 2030. What Are You Doing? project in 2019. Working with the City of Turin, the initiative’s aim – unique in the world - is to transform the Global Goals of the United Nations into 17 works of street art by 17 international artists, who conceived their art projects in 17 locations in Turin based on a common vision.
For Lavazza, support of cultural institutions is a reaffirmation of its role as ambassadors of creativity, innovation and sustainability, as well as an opportunity to highlight one of its strongest beliefs, according to which a joint effort among all market players is needed in order to achieve concrete changes with solid foundations.
Lavazza’s sponsorship of the Guggenheim began in 2014 with its support for the exhibition Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe. Since then, Lavazza has supported five more exhibitions in the New York museum. Francesca Lavazza was invited to join the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Board of Trustees in 2016. In 2017 Lavazza expanded its commitment to the Guggenheim Foundation by forging a strategic collaboration with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. In 2019 Lavazza supported the exhibition Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as part of an ongoing commitment to drive arts and culture projects worldwide.