Luigi Bonotto playing chess with Yoko Ono. Courtesy Fondazione Bonotto

In the hills of Molvena, a rural corner of the Veneto, one of the region’s most notable manufacturing stories took shape, alongside an extraordinary history of collecting and enlightened patronage. Here, one man’s passion for culture evolved organically into an authentic corporate culture, as art flowed into everyday life and merged seamlessly with entrepreneurial practice. Today, Observer pays tribute to that singular story and its central protagonist, Italian textiles entrepreneur, collector, creative innovator and patron Luigi Bonotto, who passed away at the age of 84 on November 19, leaving behind a legacy that weaves together Fluxus, visual poetry and the very spirit of ‘Made in Italy.’ Note: My tribute draws from an interview recorded in 2017 for a BA thesis on exemplary cases of enlightened art patronage and corporate art in the region.

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Fondazione Bonotto was established in 2013 to promote the Luigi Bonotto Collection, which, since the early 1970s, has amassed an extensive body of works, audio and video recordings, posters, books and magazines by Fluxus artists and by the international verbo-visual movements that emerged from the late 1950s onward. The result is an extraordinary collection, built over more than 40 years, comprising over 15,000 artworks and documents, many of which were donated directly by the artists themselves. It stands as a record of the dense, ongoing personal relationships Bonotto forged with these artists, whom he welcomed and supported, making art an integral part of his life and company through a continuous dialogue between the arts, business and contemporary culture.

An upbringing that shaped an entrepreneurial philosophy

Luigi Bonotto’s family company had once produced hats, but by the 1950s, hats were no longer everyday necessities, and his father encouraged him to learn something new within the textile sector. He studied at a textile school and, driven by curiosity, also attended the Venice Academy of Fine Arts.

There, he became a student of the renowned Italian postwar artist Emilio Vedova and began spending time with intellectuals and artists in an environment that shaped a more open mindset and clearly influenced the later success of his company. It fostered an entrepreneurial culture attuned to creativity, experimentation and innovation, a sort of “secret recipe” he later passed on to his children, enriched by the artists who surrounded them throughout their upbringing. This creative foundation eventually led to another innovation, or more accurately, a retro-innovation, with the “Fabbrica Lenta,” which helped the company remain competitive as the socio-economic landscape shifted.

Bonotto remained at the Valdagno school as a teacher, producing early fabric samples that he initially sold only as designs. He soon realized he could earn more by building an actual factory, combining technical expertise with the artistic influences he had absorbed and continued to cultivate. This was the ‘70s, when giants like Lanerossi and Marzotto were already in crisis. Yet Bonotto recognized that the textile downturn was an opportunity: the best artisans and master craftsmen were suddenly........

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