Both say that their collection has not been designed with a particular conceptual line, that what moves them most is the desire to live well and surrounded by beauty. When talking with them, you can sense that there is an interest in works that help them connect with deep psychological questions, which motivates them a lot to be able to dialogue with the unconscious through art and this makes the works they have collected very disturbing.
His taste for good living is related to Dante's Italian origin: he tells us that in his experience, wanting to be surrounded by beautiful things is something that is seen not only in the Italian elite but also in smaller and more remote towns where works of art can be found and a taste for aesthetics is perceived.
Although big names such as Roberto Matta, Mario Carreño, Sammy Benmayor, Benjamín Lira and Gonzalo Cienfuegos appear in their collection, the most important thing for Dante and Mónica is that the works transmit something to them and move them every time they see them. It is also very important for them that the works can coexist with the other objects they have been collecting, including a series of very striking vases and religious iconography that help them create a home atmosphere.
We visited them at their house one summer afternoon where we could talk about art and learn about their other passions: photography and cooking for Dante and architecture and fashion for Monica. Here's a little bit of what our conversation with this entertaining couple was like:
What prompted you to start your art collection? Was it a couple's project or was it born of one of you?
Dante: We started collecting together. Imagine, when we got married, Monica was 19 and I was 20. We were driven by the taste for beauty that art gives and the desire to live a good life. I think that houses reflect a lot of what people are and the relationship between them. When you enter a house you realize what relationships are like between the people who live there, if there is harmony, to see the balance between the feminine and the masculine... From the beginning, with Mónica, we encouraged buying art and living with furniture from different periods, with design objects. It has been a work of collecting things that we like.
Monica: Of course, we don't do investment collecting. The idea is to keep the works and objects to find a place for them in our house and to be able to live with them. It would make me sad to buy something I like and keep it.
When was the first time you fell in love with a work of art? What play was it?
Dante: The first work that struck me, for which I felt something special, is Villa Roma by Gonzalo Cienfuegos. I identified a lot with the story of the play. I see myself there with my three women. A man is ideally supposed to have three women: a lover, a friend and a lady. And the funny thing is that those three women are the same. Indeed, one of the graces of relationships is that your partner fulfills these three roles. There are Monica's three personalities. I loved the story and besides Cienfuegos's way of portraying this with a staging, I was captivated.
Monica: In my case, the first work that amazed me is not here because it is a mural that Patricia Ossa did in the old house we had. At the entrance there was a giant wall that spanned two floors. I was with her while I was creating the mural, and seeing her working for two or three months to create the work was incredible. The mural was a landscape that brought together medieval elements, half inspired by Tuscany, with yellow and orange tones, I loved it. On one side he painted two characters in the foreground, complete, almost life-size and he said it was us.
What was the first work you bought? What is the most recent purchase?
Dante: We started shopping in the early nineties, when we were 30 years old. We were very interested in supporting and learning about the painting that was being done in Chile at that time. The first work we bought was released. It was by Eduardo Ossandón, a traditional Chilean painter.
Monica: He painted still lifes, which was what was used at the time. But as you get to know more artists and your eye gets finer, you realize that there are other looks that tell you more.
Dante: the most recent purchase is this work that we bought in Bogotá, on ARTBO.
Monica: We still have to hang it up. We bought it at the Otros 360 Gallery, and it's part of the series “What Wasn't Said” by the artist Anamaría Gutiérrez de Piñeres.
Dante: I loved it because the work is called Surviving, it coincides with an internal process that I am in. I left my executive position and my union functions, and I had a space of time left that took me to return to photography, a passion that I had in my youth but I left it aside when I was focused on developing slightly hard skills, society forges you to perform in a world of economic growth and in that you leave part of your personality and your being. Then you have spaces left in your being that are a little buried, forgotten and the question comes to you: Who am I? Where is my part connected with feelings? And Anamaría suffered a traumatic process in her life and began with a psychological process, a series of family regressions, to find those voids and disarm those knots. In this process, he recorded some sentences in a notebook, exploring his unconscious. This notebook went through a process and used the blades to turn them into ceramic. I felt very identified with their process.
Monica: It's something that I think happens to all of us. We have things in our unconscious that we sometimes block, more or less traumatic, but we all have something. You analyze yourself a little bit and start connecting. This work I think that apart from being beautiful, it is super powerful. And that made us very interested.
Dante: One thing is who we are, another what they make us be, another what they ask us to be and another thing is what we want to be. In the end it's a great topic, looking for that person we have buried.
How important is it for you to get to know the artists?
Dante: We like to meet artists. The narrative behind the work is extremely important, that's what we liked most about Antenna: being able to get to know the artist a little more deeply, going to the workshops. The work ends up making more sense to you, not only in the historical context in which it is made, but also a little like the artist's message.
Monica: It is very valuable to be able to know the subjectivity of artists in Antenna sessions.
How have your experiences been at International Art Fairs?
Monica: We have been to Lima and Bogotá with the Antenna Foundation. Both fairs impressed me because there is so much to see. When we have traveled to art fairs, I love that you can learn a lot, but it's super important to go with a guide so that they can explain the context to you and be able to know what's behind the works. We went to Buenos Aires, to ArteBa, and to Ch.aco here in Santiago alone, but that's not the same as going with Antenna. The conversations with the other partners, the guides and explanations provided by Antenna, make fairs enjoyable in a different way.
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