The Burri Foundation gets a makeover: after two years of work, the Ex-Tobacco Dryhouses reopen

Last March 12, on the occasion of the one hundred and seventeenth anniversary of the birth of Alberto Burri (Città di Castello, 1915 - Nice, 1995), the Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco of the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri reopened after two long years of intense and studied rearrangement, redevelopment and restoration work. In the presence of President Bruno Corà and the Foundation’s executive committee, the fully musealized and renovated exhibition venue was presented to the press and authorities. The first day of visits, scheduled for Sunday, March 13, and reserved for the citizens of Città di Castello, was sold out: more than 450 people contacted the Palazzo Albizzini ticket office to book a visit, free of charge, in advance. Already historically important for their history, their connection to the city and for the works housed in the eleven warehouses, now the exhibition venue of the former Tobacco Dryhouses sees itself renewed with a musealization work desired and carried out by the Burri Foundation under the guidance of architect Tiziano Sarteanesi, general coordinator of the project and works, and his technical team formed by architect Cristian Beccafichi, engineers Luca Marioli and Ciro Colcelli, geologist Milko Mattiacci, industrial expert Marco Biccheri and surveyor Giovanbattista Francioni.

To achieve this result, the Burri Foundation invested 10 million euros over seven years of work, from 2015 to 2022. It began with the upgrading of the floor below and exterior renovations, which cost about 5.7 million euros. About two and a half million euros were invested in the new area, which opened in 2019, and about the same amount for the restyling of the upper floor with major climate, on the flooring, and maintenance works. The Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco are increasingly linked to Città di Castello, thanks in part to the Burri Foundation’s decision to involve almost exclusively local firms in the important works: Cesa di Falcini, the construction company Epi Simone, CMM Monaldi, for electrical and special systems the Ilce, for the painting Vincenzo Vandini, for the assemblies and staging Piero and Emanuela Apolli with the collaboration of Atlante Servizi Culturali, I Guzzini, the technical sponsor, took care of the lighting project by supplying all the lighting fixtures. The Spoleto-based company TecnoReco took care of the maintenance of the works on non-invasive techniques.

“An environment that was born not to be a museum, today finally falls within a modern and recognized musealization,” said the president of the Burri Foundation, Bruno Corà, at the press conference. “A venue like this gives pride to the Foundation and allows us to be able to dialogue with all the greatest museums in the world. There are really very few artist museums in the world, that is, dedicated to a single artist, in one city: and Città di Castello can boast a museum itinerary that begins at Palazzo Albizzini that fears no comparison with anyone. Today’s,” Corà added, “is a special and very exciting day: every time we walk through the halls of the Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco it is a new emotion dictated above all by the titanic ability of the artist to which we never get used. Observing Burri’s works inside this exhibition venue always leaves one in awe and wonder. This is a heritage that the whole world envies us.”

“In recent years, the Burri Foundation has elaborated a vast project of reclamation, redevelopment, restoration and implementation of the exhibition spaces of the Ex Seccatoi buildings,” explained Tiziano Sarteanesi. “By means of two specific phases of elaboration of a single project idea, the eleven Seccatoi underwent a deep reclamation work, first aimed at their basement floor and then at the mezzanine floor. A system of diffuse drainage and fall away channels was adopted to establish the level of the water table formed under the floor and make it constant with respect to each weather event. A new floor with an aerated crawl space was then constructed.” Static work was also carried out in the foundations and on the impost of the pillars, increasing the overall stability of the complex.

“On the mezzanine floor, inside the rooms, Burri himself had designed whitewashed plasterboard perimeter walls: on them he developed the exhibition route known to us all,” Sarteanesi further explained. "These are the great pictorial cycles, Il Viaggio (1979), Orsanmichele (1980), Sestante (1982), Rosso e nero (1983-1984), T Cellotex (1975 - 1984), Annottarsi (1985 - 1987), Non ama il Nero (1988), Grandi Neri (1988 - 1990), Metamorfotex (1991) and Nero e Oro (1992 - 1993). The new project of musealization of the Seccatoi kept the same walls decided by Burri and the same arrangement and succession of works. Special attention was paid to the air conditioning and lighting systems through the use of LED technology that restore the right colors of the works while preserving the original equipment Burri wanted. The entire Ex Seccatoi museum has been wired with wi-fi and fiber optic network, cameras and audio systems, adapted to the latest technologies for all kinds of communication, cultural and security needs."

“Significant coincidences,” say Città di Castello Mayor Luca Secondi and Cultural Policy Councilor Michela Botteghi, “make today’s important today’s day of reopening to the public of the former dryhouses after two years of rearrangement, redevelopment and restoration work, beginning with the date March 12, the day of the master’s birth and the reappointment of Professor Bruno Corà as president of the Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri together with the partially renewed board with the designation of public and non-public members. It is a prestigious reappointment that of Professor Corà, who has led until now with great competence, passion and sense of belonging to the community of tifernate an organism unique in Europe, which can boast a number of contemporary artworks of immense artistic and cultural value that does honor to the city, to the region to Italy in the world. The city, I am sure, has a strong expectation of this new board of the Foundation, an expectation linked primarily to the non-procrastinable realization of Piazza Burri and a shared commitment to spreading the art of the great master both internationally and locally in our community, making the artist from tifernate a strong and shared presence in the city’s memory as a cultural heritage that belongs to us.”

Now, after seven years of work, they are still looking to the future with important projects ready for implementation: “Photovoltaics are already ready,” Sarteanesi announced. “In addition, in the two external sheds there is the project of the realization of a bunker that will safely accommodate for the works, a restoration laboratory and another where we would like to implant the didactics, aimed not only at schools in the area, but that will also involve other realities such as the Sapienza University of Rome. Finally, with the Foundation’s purchase of a small building adjacent to the perimeter of the structure’s large garden, there is a plan to set up a major refreshment point.”

From Tuesday, March 15, it will be possible to visit not only the exhibition venue of Palazzo Albizzini, but also that of the Former Tobacco Dryhouses with the following hours: Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and holidays, however, in continuous hours 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed on Mondays, except for public holidays. Reservations are recommended by contacting the Palazzo Albizzini Ticket Office at 0759554649.

The Burri Foundation gets a makeover: after two years of work, the Ex-Tobacco Dryhouses reopen

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