V-A-C Foundation is an international non-profit private organization founded in 2009 with an emphasis on supporting contemporary art exhibitions and projects emerging from Russia and the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

History

Founded in 2009 by businessman and philanthropist

Leonid Mikhelson Leonid Viktorovich Mikhelson (russian: Леони́д Ви́кторович Михельсо́н; born 11 August 1955) is a Russian billionaire businessman, CEO, chairman and major shareholder of the Russian gas company Novatek. After the collap ...

and Teresa Iarocci Mavica, who has been Director of the Foundation since its inception, the V-A-C Foundation is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves contemporary art projects by internationally based visual and multidisciplinary artists, with a particular emphasis on artists located in, or emerging from, the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and the former

. In 2015, Italian

starchitect Starchitect is a portmanteau used to describe architects whose celebrity and critical acclaim have transformed them into idols of the architecture world and may even have given them some degree of fame among the general public. Celebrity status is ...

Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (20 ...

was commissioned to design the foundation's venue ( GES-2) in Moscow. In 2017, V-A-C Foundation's Venetian headquarter Zattere was launched. Located in a renovated historic palazzo situated on Zattere and overlooking the

Canale della Giudecca The Giudecca Canal ( vec, Canal de ła Zueca) is a body of water that flows into the San Marco basin in Venice, Italy. It is one of the major canals in the city, it bisects the ''sestieri'' of Dorsoduro, separating Giudecca island and district fr ...

, this venue hosts exhibitions, events and residencies. The renovation of the historic Palazzo delle Zattere was carried out by local architect Alessandro Pedron, transforming the building into a new centre for contemporary culture for the city of Venice.

References

External links

V-A-C Foundation official site
Arts organizations based in Russia Foundations based in Russia {{art-org-stub