“Great artistic thinking is never orchestrated. This is what I like and what I need: the raptus”
AT: How did you start engaging with the art world and how/when did you decide it could become your profession?
VDC: I started very spontaneously in 2010, through an activity which has been growing and structuring itself gradually: studio visits, conversations with gallerists, curators etc. It was an obsessive activity, I must admit. I was still working as an orchestral conductor, back then. The decision of opening a gallery space happened very naturally, almost physiologically. I started in a 25 square meters basement, it was cold, with no heating, but beautiful!
AT: What moved you opening your own space in Vienna?
VDC: I moved to Vienna in 2008 to study orchestral conducting at the University of Music and performing Arts. I graduated in 2013 with a debut concert at Musikverein Golden Hall where I conducted Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
AT: What are the toughest and the most fulfilling aspects of your job?
VDC: The most fulfilling aspect is surely the dialogue with artists and the personal growth coming from it. The complex part is the structural one; one should never forget a commercial gallery is a bureaucratic entity: shipments, bills, storage, organisation, planning- it is a complex activity.

Installation view: Myles Starr, The Name of the Rose, VIN VIN, 2020.
AT: Does your gallery have a specific and coherent thread passing through the exhibitions? Why this choice?
VDC: On one side the way I work is very intuitive, on the other side there are many aspects which are common to many of the artists I work with. This being said, I let the public recognise a coherent thread through my gallery program. Theoretically, in the art field, I could list many elements I like and I dislike but listing that would generate a very boring and – indeed – a bureaucratic moment in this interview. Being musical is a matter of 0,001 milliseconds and it means being able to give a form to the inexplicable. The same happens with visual art. Great artistic thinking is never orchestrated. This is what I like and what I need: the raptus. Even if the final result is the most precise and aesthetically refined work; artistic thinking is a matter of milliseconds.
AT: How do you intend the gallerist – artist relationship? What is the first step you make and how do you relate with them?
VDC: I learned to listen to them. If you listen to artists, you grow and your gallery grows with you. Usually if you start that way and if you do really listen to artists, they listen to you, and the magic happens.
AT: How important is ‘networking’ in your job? How do you relate with your same-field colleagues?
VDC: Networking is extremely important if the drive is first of all the human relationship. As with artists, if you love people, people will love you. From the very beginning I felt what I define a communicative urgency; That need, that urgency, helped me in starting many great dialogues. Growing together with people is the best thing can happen to a human being and to a gallerist. I relate to my colleagues as I relate to all other people, with openness, respect, and in some cases, with admiration.

Martin Hotter, me’s, 2018, Can, candle, mirror, 8x8x11 cm.

Installation view: Anne Schmidt, Michelangelo, VIN VIN, 2020.
AT: What is your relationship with art fairs?
VDC: I love them; they are an extraordinary vehicle of dialogue. You meet new people, you expand the artists‘ and gallery‘s context and you get the really good adrenaline, the one coming from human exchanges.
AT: How would you describe the collectors of your gallery? How important are they for you?
VDC: Visionary. Extremely curious and passionate. Open. Together with artists, they are VIN VIN.
AT: What is the role of the digital tool in what you do?
VDC: It is a very important role. A window. An accelerator.

Dino Zrnec, Untitled, 2017, Oil on cotton, 87×63 cm.

Lewis Stein, Works Since 1971, VIN VIN, 2020.
AT: What do you think will be the role of the galleries, in the next future?
VDC: It is very hard to predict future scenarios and any precise prediction is a lie. Pandemic is bringing and will bring a lot of changes in society and we have to be ready for change, in one direction or another. Meanwhile, we have to nurture our enthusiasm, passion and dedication.
AT: Next projects on site?
VDC: A solo exhibition of Lewis Stein, born in 1945 in New York. An extraordinary artist who participated in Whitney Annual (precursor to Whitney Biennial) in 1969 at age of 24. Stein‘s work is in major international collections such as The New Museum, the Ludwig Museum, Cologne, the Dakis Joannou Collection, among others. I am very much looking forward to his solo show, which will be articulated between elegance and radicality.
AT: If you had to give some advice to a youngster who wants to open a space, what it would be?
VDC: It is a door. You’ve got the key.

Installation view: Saskia Te Nicklin, So Fresh On Top So Rotten Below, VIN VIN, 2019.
VIN VIN was founded in 2016 by Vincenzo Della Corte, former orchestral conductor from Italy. Vincenzo moved to Vienna in 2008 in order to study orchestral conducting at the University of Music and performing Arts, Vienna. He graduated with a debut concert at Musikverein Golden Hall where he conducted Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. VIN VIN started its activity in 2016 in a 25 square meters space in the first district of Vienna before moving to the current location, in Hintzerstrasse, third district of Vienna. VIN VIN participated in the following art fairs which took place physically: Miart 2017; Miart 2019; Artissima 2019. At Miart 2019, with a solo presentation by Saskia Te Nicklin, the artist and VIN VIN have been awarded with LCA Law Firm Prize for the most distinctive booth within the category Emergent. At Artissima 2019, with a solo presentation by Myles Starr, the artist and VIN VIN have been awarded with New Entries Fair Fund established by Professional Trust Company. This year, for the second year VIN VIN has participated to curated by, the festival with international curators in Vienna.
