WHAT
Cardi Black Box is a new art gallery born as private cultural institution and aimed at promoting both established and emerging artists through its exhibition programme. Eclectic and versatile, the gallery wishes to become a point of reference in the international art scene by means of an experimental and innovative approach. Cardi Black Box is characterised by a distinctive model, based upon its dual mission – culture and business – meant to recognise quality, regardless of the provenance and age of the artists proposed, in the conviction that also a private commercial space can host exhibition projects of museum quality.

WHERE AND WHEN
Cardi Black Box is a single project operating over two fronts; in Milano, in Corso di Porta Nuova, and later in 2009 in London, with the opening of a prestigious space, in famous Mayfair. Artists will be presented in both galleries, or, alternatively, only in London or Milan, following an effective logic of promotion and divulgation of their work. With its double venue in Milan and London, Cardi Black Box wants to generate a virtuous circle aimed at becoming a centre for production and promotion of culture at an international level. A true incubator of contemporary culture.

WHO
Cardi Black Box is born out of the initiative of Nicolò Cardi, a young entrepreneur from Milan, with a specialisation in business applied to art, and with a thirty-year long family experience in the art field. Nicolò Cardi is determinate to start a brand new and autonomous journey, coherent with his vision of the contemporary art world and the renewed needs of collectors. The key feature of Cardi Black Box corresponds to the decision of providing the gallery with an artistic direction, just like a cultural institution. The artistic direction of Cardi Black Box has been assigned to Sarah Cosulich Canarutto, former curator of Villa Manin Centre for Contemporary Art and with a professional background matured within public institutions in Italy and abroad.

HOW
Quality, research, experimentation, innovation, participation, accessibility. These are the pillars on which the project is built. The objective of Cardi Black Box is to generate an independent and high quality centre of artistic production which, through a serious process of scouting, research and interaction with the artists, should result in the presentation of works that are valuable and relevant to the development of contemporary art. The Gallery, beside selecting its artists, builds with them a relationship of mutual trust and offers the necessary support for the development of their artistic practice.

WHY
Cardi Black Box is a project originating from a reflection on the role and function of galleries within contemporary society. As a matter of fact, galleries today represent a reference point for the world of art and culture, and for the territory, with a responsibility not just towards collectors but also towards artists and the public in general.

THE CULTURAL OFFER
The programme of Cardi Black Box alternate exhibitions of young emerging artists with shows by influential ones recognised by the international contemporary art world. Cardi Black Box grants its trust to young artists who, even if less known by the art market, have already presented their work in important public institutions. At the same time, the gallery will present historical figures whose work has strongly influenced the new generation of artists but that often, paradoxically, are not so acknowledged and recognised by collectors. Cardi Black Box aims to be a propositive reality, to shape and develop collecting, to surprise the public and create partnerships with the represented artists in the realisation of their most ambitious projects - in and outside the gallery. Cardi Black Box offers them assistance, collaborates in the production of their works and maintains a strong dialogue with the public institutions that host them. For its visitors, Cardi Black Box aims to be an interlocutor attentive to the needs of all gallery goers, from the passionate collector to the general public. Thus the cultural value and the contemporary imprint of the programme translate into the attention of making art always accessible. Each exhibition is in fact accompanied not only by an unique brochure, but also by explicative captions with additional information on each work. To know all the artists that will be represented by Cardi Black Box the public will have to wait and see the exhibitions one by one. The gallery’s identity will be built gradually by means of an exhibition programme which is at the same time diverse, clear and coherent.

NOTEBOX
Following the objectives of divulgation and accessibility, each exhibition at Cardi Black Box is accompanied by a small dedicated publication, which serves as visitor’s companion in the discovery of the artist and artworks. NoteBox is a simple but exhaustive instrument, complemented by images and clear information, able to offer a basic reading of the exhibition. A characteristic of this tool is that of being at the same time content and frame. Texts and images in fact find a place on the folded cover of a totally white notebook that each visitor can fill in with comments and notes. If Cardi Black Box reveals the black box of collective and personal memory through the artworks, NoteBox hosts the thoughts and individual memory of each spectator. NoteBox is testimony of an exhibition and, at the same time, a tool for reflection to be freely consulted, used and kept. An invite to collect in writing the thoughts and traces of our everyday.