22/11/2001
by Elisa Paulsen

In their first joint show in Turin, Botto & Bruno exhibited documentary style black and white prints on plexiglass (40 x 40 cm) showing barren excerpts of suburbs. The prices ranged between $ 363 (€ 413) for a single-edition photograph, to $ 680 (€ 775) for a triptych composed of photographic images (each 40 x 40 cm), and reaching $ 2,270 (€ 2,582) for a wallpaper (a one-off, photographic print in black and white on paper, 25 cm x 4 x 4m) which, depending on the size, could fetch up to $ 4,540 (€ 5,164). A year later, 5 cushions (laser-copy on stuffed fake-leather, 70 x 40 cm) exhibited in the group exhibition Gli stessi sogni, staged at the Le Case d'Arte di Pasquale Leccese gallery in Milan, raised a total of some $ 1,816 (€ 2,066), in line with the previous year’s prices.

In 1999, prices for Botto & Bruno works changed. In the show My Beautiful Box (Alberto Peola), a single-copy photographic triptych (paper on forex, 115 x 115 cm) cost $ 6,810 (€ 7,747), a single photograph of the same size was priced $ 3,632 (€ 4,132), while a wallpaper (laser print on paper, 700 x 400 cm) was worth about $ 6,810 (€ 7,747). How do gallerists explain this success?

According to Pasquale Leccese, "collectors needed a certain amount of time to get used to the often polemical images of Botto & Bruno, but once their work was understood, the response of the market was very positive". To Alberto Peola’s way of thinking: "It was the first prize that was awarded to the sculpture Softcity in 1998, during the exhibition ‘Torino incontra l'arte’, that brought the artists Botto & Bruno to the public eye, awakening the interest of the collectors". Indeed, it was during that same year that important sales were made, most notably, the acquisition by the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo of one of their wallpapers.

As well as the prices, the iconography changed during these years. The suburbs were no longer black and white but took on a red and purple colouring, denoting further the alienation of the landscape and of the people who live there. The wallpaper Suburb's Island, exhibited in 1999 on the occasion of the exhibition fwd Italia: passaggi invisibili (Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena), is one of the most emblematic and well-known images of the artists, pointing to the evolution in their work. It is clear that the change has been well received by the market and a wallpaper similar to the one shown in Siena in technique and iconography (colour laser photocopies, about 400 x 500 cm) was sold the same year for $ 11,355 (€ 12,911) by Case d'Arte.

Last year confirmed the good performance seen in 1999. The Fondazione Teseco in Pisa, for example, gave the work of the two artists a helping hand, acquiring one of their large outdoor works (print on pvc) for its permanent collection. Also last year Botto & Bruno held an exhibition entitled My song goes down into the water at the Alfonso Artiaco gallery in Pozzuoli where they presented two wallpaper (colour photocopies, 492 x 350 cm). "If one year ago each of the wallpapers was worth about $ 6,810 (€ 7, 747), today works of the same dimensions are worth at least $ 9,085 (€ 10,329)," says gallerist Artiaco. Two digital prints on vinyl, produced in an edition of two and entitled I remember my school (150 x 193 cm) and I remember my song (100 x 223 cm), are valued around $ 3,633-4,087 (€ 4,132-4,648).

It is difficult to predict the degree to which the commercial success of the artists will be affected by their work House where Nobody lives, presented at the last Biennale in Venice (June-November 2001), but at Art Basel, which opened one week after the opening of the Biennale in Venice, the Galleria Artiaco sold all the works by Botto & Bruno. Another international success dates back to May, when, at the Art Dealers Fair in Marseille, Le Case d'Arte registered a "sell out" of the Botto & Bruno works exhibited, among which the prints on fabric (280 x 180 cm) stood out, being eventually bought for $ 5,450 (€ 6,197) each.

On the 18^th of October the monograph entitled Botto & Bruno. Something in the Sky (Gabrius editions) and the multiple I have never been I (vutek print on trevira, 86 x 60 cm), made in an edition of fifty and available at $ 545 (€ 620), were presented in Milan.