Stanley Whitney, The Jitterberg Waltz, 2017, Photo by Roberto Salomone. Courtesy of Le Sirenuse
Le Sirenuse hotel is a testament to the passage of time, shaped by generations of the Sersale family. Originally opened in 1951 when four Neapolitan siblings transformed their Positano summer home into a charming hotel, Le Sirenuse has evolved into a space where history and modernity coexist harmoniously. LVH goes into conversation with Le Sirenuse curator, Silka Rittson-Thomas about the historic hotel’s contemporary art collection.
LVH: Can you tell me about how the collection collaboration with Le Sirenuse began?
SILKA: Antonio Sersale approached me about 10 years ago wanting to acquire contemporary art for La Sirenuse. The hotel itself is a thing of beauty, compelling in its many layered histories and brought to bear over a long period of time. It reflects the exacting sensibilities of the family over generations .
Franco, the founder and father of Antonio, collected exquisite antiquities and artifacts that you see around the hotel today. So it was apparent to me from the beginning that if we did anything to contribute, it had to strike a considered balance between its historicity and its narratives to come. Therefore whichever artist we collaborated with would have to respond to what exists already and be able to tease out contemporary poetics in a way that would honour the past. This led me to think about how we could bring artists to respond to the specifics of the hotel and its exceptional attention to detail - the service, the beauty, the warmth, the familiar energy and to the incredible nature of the Costiera, the hotel being a capsule of intimacy .
The program we have formulated involves many conversations between Antonio and I on the artists I suggest, which is then followed by meetings with artists, their galleries and studio visits
Over a period of time , we have developed a good formula. The artists are invited to stay at the hotel prior to the start of the project , and are immersed in the Sireneuse experience during their visit, returning to their studios with a cache of ideas to work with. We don’t approach the artists with preconceived ideas. The location of the work is something we arrive at organically. The artist finds the spot or the spot finds the artist.
LVH: What approach was taken to merge contemporary art with the historic atmosphere of Le Sirenuse?
SILKA: The process evolved very naturally. I felt that it would be nice to create a program where artists organically respond to the Italian sentiment quite directly. Antonio is an exuberant person with a terrific sense of humour and wit and you see that run through quite a few works at the hotel. There is an air of happiness, laughter and unbridled opulence and yet at the same time it is quiet and private in its own way.
The hotel is really a conversation place. Movements and conversations are always taking place; the family are very engaged with their guests and it is a very intimate feeling. It was important to me to extend the same sentiment with the contemporary art; to retain a sense of permanence, but also constantly evolving. A constant breath of new ideas coming in while retaining its old world solidity and elegance so to speak.
So it is a democratic experiment with a varied lexicon of references in art, always in dialogue with the atmosphere of the hotel.
LVH: What is the process for selecting artworks?
SILKA: In terms of selecting artists, we look at artists from whose work we sense a natural connection to the place, without any overt links to it. There is an undeniable sense of humor and artisanal reference points in all the artists we work with. Everything at Le Sirenuse goes back to conversation and I choose artists that I feel are able to sustain that in interesting ways in their work.
For example, when we first started the collection, I started thinking about Martin and his neons, and how Italy is such a bastion of the neon classically. From the 1920’s onwards, neon was on the Campari advertisements, or streets of Turin, there is neon present everywhere grabbing attention. Antonio and the Sersale family are always energetic and thoughtful, highly attentive about everything, so the neon ‘Don’t Worry’ is a great set up, subtly ameliorating. It was the first multicolor neon that Martin did, and was a beautiful introduction to the collection - during the day you don't really notice it, and then as night falls it begins to glow.
LVH: How is the cultural and historical context (genius loci) of Positano and the Amalfi Coast taken into consideration when selecting art for the hotel?
SILKA: There are very direct references to the locality. Like with Martin and the neon, the vibrant age old tradition of advertising and marketing in Italy; Caragh Thuring’s work is so direct and humorous with artisanal references. She has traditionally worked with the undercurrent of the broody unknowns of submarines and volcanoes. Her fabric work for example is a direct link- the piece is made from an existing fabric she had, woven in Suffolk, but it is based on a tile that she had found in a monastery somewhere outside of Naples. This recreation of the volcano imagery is absurd because there is a volcano spitting out, while a sailboat sails calmly underneath. Then you have these figures, resembling the old Vesuvian postcards, where people admire and explore the volcano, while it is erupting! It's completely nonsensical, but also humorous. Caragh picked her spot and rearranged the room with Antonio. What I love is the insertion of these gesso paintings into the folds of the bar, which then extends that absurdist humor, where one volcano looks like a sprig of rosemary, referencing the wild herbs and cuisine of the region. It became it’s own unit of witty playfulness.
Matt Connors is another wonderful example. For his panels he dissected all the colors in the hotel. I think there are about 96 different colors in those panels. But then the surface is Formica, which is a typical Italian kitchen surface. It is a very 60’s material; robust and traditional to Italian kitchen craftsmanship. Lucy Stein, who made the menus for Aldo’s bar, references the mystic siren very playfully. She depicts various moods of a siren, from mischievous to angry, to a cheeky one with a cocktail.
Alex Israel’s mural is a direct reference to the glamour of Amalfi and the Dolce Vita. This one I love because it is an instant juxtaposition between reveries of Hollywood and the fantasy of the Amalfi Coast. The play of the palms, and the vegetation of Le Sirenuse is so specific and so special as though a mirage. Rita (Ackerman) does not want to reveal too much about the two female figures in her paintings, but you have the sun bursting out of the hearts of these Siren like women, capturing them, trying to catch them, in a very mystical way. Stanley Whitney’s work was an obvious choice because his work is so akin to the squares of the tiles. The tiles are such an important element, not just at the Le Sirenuse, but on the Amalfi Coast. Every tile in the hotel is made from local makers. I love the musicality and the dance of the (Stanley) tiles - the work is aptly titled The Jitterberg Waltz, a title also alluring to the I Galli Island, formerly the residence of Léonide Massine and later Rudolf Nureyev
LVH: The Nicolas Party pool is the latest installation. Can you tell us about the collaboration? What is the inspiration and dialogue between the pool and its location on the Amalfi Coast.
SILKA: We began the conversation with Nicolas Party right when COVID hit, so overall the pool has been four to five years in the making. Nicolas doesn't shy away from exploring materials, for example in the past he has worked with bronze and marbling techniques using varied forms of craftsmanship. Although he had not yet experimented with mosaics before, it fit his practice so well. The pool was ready for a redo and it was the perfect timing for this to fall into place. Nicolas is the only artist where the project had a very specific brief to work on and a very defined space.
He really loves to collaborate with the craftsmen. The mosaic tiles were chosen with great care as a reference to the Pompeii and Roman histories, therefore locating a strong link with traditional artisanship in the contemporary. His relationship with the tile makers was a dynamic back and forth, as he had to arrange the pixels exactly the way that he felt was right with the color ranges he had in mind according to the Bisazza tiles.
LVH: What is the process behind acquiring artworks for Le Sirenuse?
SILKA: Every work for Le Sirenuse is specially commissioned. This is possible because of my long term working relationships with the artists and their galleries. This is an area that requires a great deal of trust on both sides. Most artists we work with have defined practices but they are also open to collaboration and experimentation; site specificity is as important to them as it is to us. In this there is a risk we take on both sides. The artist leaves once the work is done, the location is remote, and the works are permanent as we do not rotate the works. The acquisitions of the works are really about the relationships we enjoy and hope the hotel guests do in turn.
