Oliviero Rainaldi Infinito Campari
Infinity Campari, the large sculpture by Oliviero Rainaldi, which represents the artistic and symbolic
expression of 160 years of celebrating life, was unveiled to the public at the Group headquarters in an
exclusive event
Milan, 10 September 2020
In a historical moment in which the celebration of life has a strongly shared and heartfelt meaning, Campari Group celebrates its 160th anniversary with a sculpture that is a hymn to life and represents the values that have guided the Group since its foundation, in 1860, and throughout its evolution and growth all over the world, always with an eye to the future.
The 160th anniversary was celebrated where the company’s first plant was built, in Sesto San Giovanni, with the inauguration of “Infinito Campari“, a work of art designed and created by the internationally renowned sculptor Oliviero Rainaldi. A legacy that strengthens the company’s bond with Italy, the city of Sesto S. Giovanni and the world of art. The work is a gift for the Camparistas, the more than 4,000 employees who work for the Group around the world, for the fans and admirers of Campari, and for the present and future generations.
The work is inspired by the history of Campari and in particular by two works created by artists who in their time made an essential contribution to building the brand: the futurist Fortunato Depero with his work of 1931, “The Campari Pavilion”, and the painter and illustrator Leonetto Cappiello who, with “Lo Spiritello” (1921), marked the history of the brand.
Infinito Campari is a complex work of art that consists of two elements: a work of landscape art entitled the Telescopic Labyrinth and a monumental sculpture in Carrara marble that lies inside it. The 320-square-meter Telescopic Labyrinth is composed of the monogram CG, the initials of Campari Group that together create the symbol of infinity: this element, which recalls the botanical origins of Campari, contains the marble sculpture at its center, a dynamic and open geometric shape that recalls a sphere with a diameter of 2.50 m.
The sculpture was made from a single block of white Carrara marble weighing 74 tons. The work, inspired by the orange peel that envelops Cappiello’s Spiritello, consists of two circles that again represent an intertwined C and G. Inside the marble work there is a special sealed niche that houses a bottle of Bitter Campari: the beating and secret heart of Infinito Campari.
“For 160 years we have been toasting life together, which for us means responsibly celebrating moments of sharing with our loved ones and our friends. I would like to thank Oliviero Rainaldi for being able to fully capture the soul of Campari, exalting its ambition to last over time as only art can do.” declared Bob Kunze-Concewitz, CEO of Campari Group.
“Working with Campari has been an intense journey of discovery. I knew that the history of Campari has been intertwined with the world of art since its origins, always aiming high and looking beyond, also thanks to the important contribution of the artists who over the years have taken up the challenge of describing such a unique
brand. I accepted this assignment as a sign: the sign of being able to push myself even further, and it is precisely in this vision that goes beyond the boundaries of the tangible that I thought and was able to create what I consider to be one of my most innovative works: Infinito Campari.” Oliviero Rainaldi.
About Campari Group
Campari Group is a major player in the global spirits industry, with a portfolio of over 50 premium and super premium brands, spreading across Global, Regional and Local priorities. Global Priorities, the Group’s key focus, include Aperol, Appleton Estate, Campari, SKYY, Wild Turkey and Grand Marnier. The Group was founded in 1860 and today is the sixth-largest player worldwide in the premium spirits industry. It has a global distribution reach, trading in over 190 nations around the world with leading positions in Europe and the Americas. The Group’s growth strategy aims to combine organic growth through strong brand building and external growth via selective acquisitions of brands and businesses.
Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Campari Group owns 22 plants worldwide and has its own distribution network in 21 countries. The Group employs approximately 4,000 people. The shares of the parent company Davide Campari-Milano N.V. (Reuters CPRI.MI – Bloomberg CPR IM) have been listed on the Italian Stock Exchange since 2001. For more information: www.camparigroup.com/en
Oliviero Rainaldi Biography
orn in the town of Caramanico Terme in 1956. From 1975 to 1978 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice under Emilio Vedova, and he then graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts of L’Aquila, in Abruzzo, under Fabio Mauri. His first solo exhibition was in Venice in 1976. His work is largely focused on the human figure, analyzed
through the various mediums of drawing, graphics, painting and sculpture. His earlier works are vague narrative compositions, but in the ‘90s he started producing isolated figures and fragments of bodies, with a linear approach that emphasises their most ideal and essential qualities, as well as revealing subtle hidden connections with archaic and medieval art.
This can be seen in the following works by Rainaldi: Gisant, 1990; Battesimi Umani, 1992; Caduti, 1993; Santo, 2000; Conversazioni, 2004; Vergine, 2006; Malebolge, 2007; Copia, 2010; and Naiadi, 2012.
Over the years Rainaldi’s work has often been associated with historical locations that are not part of traditional exhibition spaces, and he has created installations in the following prestigious sites in Rome at the Complex of Bernini’s Church of San Andrea al Quirinale, with a work entitled Dono del Mattino, 2000; at the Sala Vanvitelli at the Avvocatura Generale dello Stato, with Antigone, 2012; at the Tempietto del Bramante, with Nada y Todo, 2014 and at the church of Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples, with the work The Eight Works of Mercy, 2018.
Important solo exhibitions have been dedicated to his work at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Bologna in 2003 at the Palazzo Venezia of Rome in 2006, and his exhibition of sculptures using water at the gardens of the Villa Aldobrandini of Rome in 2010 was then shown at the National Museum of Villa Pisani in Venice in 2011 and at the Venice International University on the island of San Servolo, on the occasion of the 55 th Venice Biennale of 2013.
This was followed in 2015 and 2016 by a series of solo exhibitions in Asia at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, at the Petronas Gallery in Kuala Lumpur and at the Partners & Mucciaccia Art Gallery in Singapore. In 2017 the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) invited Rainaldi to exhibit his outdoor sculptures in Dubai, together with the British sculptor Sir Tony Craig.
In 2019 Oliviero Rainaldi was invited to participate at the 2nd Biennale of Anren in China. In the late ‘90s Rainaldi explored his interest in the relations between art and the Christian liturgy, attending a two-year course at the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm in Rome followed by a three-year course of theology for laics. He was then entrusted with several ecclesiastical commissions and he created the liturgical furnishings for several churches in Rome, Terni, Prato and Warsaw. During the Great Jubilee of 2000 Pope John Paul II awarded him the title of Academic of the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters of the Virtuosi at the Pantheon.
In 2010 he received the European Personality Award at the Campidoglio in Rome, in 2015 the Brand Personality Award from the Asia Pacific Brands Foundation (APBF) and in 2017 the Franco Cuomo International Award, with a ceremony at the Italian Senate. In 2016 he was given an honorary degree by the Roma Tre University of Rome.
Oliviero Rainaldi has also created artworks for the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation of Europe; the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park at Grand Rapids, Michigan; various monumental works for the Grimaldi Group; a portrait of the Queen of Malaysia and in 2011 the controversial sculpture of Pope John Paul II that now stands in Rome’s Piazza dei Cinquecento. In 2015 the Maserati automobile company celebrated their 100th anniversary by commissioning Rainaldi to create the work Neptune in the Wind, a large bas-relief of the Roman god Neptune made of a piece of backlit marble. Some of the artist’s artworks are present in permanent collections of national and international public institutions: Human Baptisms, 1995, at the Stockholm City Hall (the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony location); Human Baptisms, 1998, at the UN Building in Geneva; Vergine, in the Collection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome; Santo, 2012, at the Pontifical Council for Culture, Vatican City; and Caduti, at the Soumaya Foundation, Mexico City 2015.
