Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti to Hold First Exhibit in New Home

MILAN — “I love beauty, it’s not my fault,” Valentino Garavani famously said when filmed for the Matt Tyrnauer 2008 documentary on his life, “The Last Emperor.”

Fast forward to 2025 and beauty continues to be a focus for the couturier and his longtime partner, Giancarlo Giammetti.

That phrase will now be a centerpiece of PM23, the venue in Rome that hosts the Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti’s cultural initiatives. Mirrors bearing those words will be commissioned as an artwork to be placed at the entrance of PM23, revealed Giammetti in an interview.

“’Beauty creates beauty’ is the guiding principle of the Fondazione, it’s at the center of it all, as inspiration and progress,” Giammetti said. “The space will host all cultural activities supported by the Fondazione with exhibitions, events, workshops and initiatives dedicated to the celebration of beauty in all its forms, to preserve it and promote it for the future.”

Dubbed PM23 from the address of the building in Piazza Mignanelli 23, next to the storied Valentino headquarters in Rome, the foundation will stage its first event in the space in May.

Palazzo Gabrielli Mignanelli is a late Renaissance palace built around 1575 near the city’s landmark Spanish Steps. The Valentino fashion house is a separate entity and business from the foundation. Giammetti said, however, that garments from the Valentino archive, which remains the property of the couture house, will be over time displayed by the foundation at PM23.

The foundation was established in 2016 as an entity with a philanthropic mission and is taking shape with its first exhibition space in Rome, where its activities will take place. After one year of conservative restoration works as a multidisciplinary space covering 10,800 square feet, it is the “beating heart of the cultural activities of the Fondazione,” Giammetti said. “It’s a veritable museum of art and fashion.”

Reflecting Garavani’s and Giammetti’s aesthetic vision, the foundation will be committed to three key pillars: the support of social and philanthropic initiatives; enhancing the arts and culture, and talent education and backing.

“Our goal is to hold two exhibitions per year and dedicate three months to workshops and contests to help young talents find their voice and provide them with scholarships,” Giammetti said.

The exhibitions and strategies of the foundation are conceived by Giammetti, who will be flanked each time by curators. For the inaugural exhibition, which will pay tribute to the legacy of Garavani and Giammetti, the curators are Anna Coliva, previously director of Galleria Borghese, and Pamela Golbin, previously head curator of the Department of Fashion and Textiles of the  Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, respectively in charge of art and fashion.

The event “will combine fashion and contemporary art marking the beginning of a program of exhibitions that will make PM23 a destination for an international public and a point of reference for creativity and emerging talent,” Giammetti said.

Giammetti underscored that staging an exhibition “does not mean only to assemble a string of beautiful things, as there has to be a meaning, a union between fashion and art, never contrasting. And some exhibitions will be unexpected. As [artist Francis] Picabia said, ‘If you want to have clean ideas change them as often as your shirts.’”

“The Fondazione is self-funded, which allows us to have freedom of choice in selecting guests and artists and in the decision-making, which is very important to us,” continued Giammetti, who holds the role of vice president of the foundation, while Garavani is its president.

They have collected artworks throughout their lives, and Giammetti said they will also display some of their personal masterpieces at PM23.

Working with local and international organizations, recent projects of the foundation range from the support of hospitals such as the Bambin Gesù and the Policlinico Gemelli, both in Rome, and supplementing the income of families in need in the Italian capital. It is also committed to protecting cultural institutions such as the Valentino Garavani theater in Voghera.

In 2020, the foundation donated 1 million euros to the Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli hospital in Rome to support the new Columbus COVID 2 unit, which was established by the health care center to treat COVID-19 patients.

In 2019, the foundation also committed funding to the CFDA’s Fashion Manufacturing Initiative, connecting emerging American designers to production resources.