The Work Relationship Between Mara Coccia and Daniela Ferraria

The exhibition Le opere e gli archivi: Mara Coccia e Daniela Ferraria (The works and archives:Mara Coccia and Daniela Ferraria) was produced following acquisition by the National Gallery of the archives of the two gallery owners and pieces together their activity at the Arco d'Alibert: the documents and works selected by the two collections are organised into two distinct sections of the exhibition. In the one planned for Mara Coccia, the path begins with personal photographs and continues retracing her exhibition activity through drawings, paintings and invitations.

Daniela Ferraria's section instead begins with archival documents and works from her collection, and then continues with the rearrangement of a solo exhibit by Paolo Cotani and with some drawings by Pino Pascali for advertising, two activities she showed in the past.

The two complementary exhibitions presented at the National Gallery outline the history of the work relationship between the two gallery owners. It all began in 1968 when Daniela Ferraria helped Rolando Canfora set up one of his personal exhibitions at the Studio Arco d'Alibert: it is on this occasion that Mara Coccia, founder of that space four years earlier, noticed her skills and suggested that they work together. Initially hired as an assistant to oversee the gallery when Coccia was absent, engaged in the search for new artists, Ferraria gradually took on a more central role thanks to her skills: in addition to the press office, she personally managed both contacts with the main artists in Rome, and the organisation of significant exhibitions, including those of Tano Festa, Cesare Tacchi and Aldo Mondino.

Despite the rise of Daniela Ferraria, the work relationship between the two remained balanced and hierarchical, thanks to the continuous contribution of Mara Coccia who, on one hand concretely supported the ideas of the younger woman and, on the other hand, maintained roles exclusively assigned for her including selling the works. Thanks to the dialogue and agreement established, the two-year period 1968-70 saw the most fruitful and pleasant collaboration between the two.

Despite the excellent exhibition activity, at the end of 1970 Coccia left the gallery and Ferraria was forced to start a new job at the Feltrinelli bookshop, where she continues to collaborate in avant-garde art events. The regret left over at the conclusion of an experience as influential as it was brief, led Daniela Ferraria in 1975 to involve Mara Coccia in the opening of a new exhibition space, this time taking on the role of owner herself.

Coccia was carried away by the enthusiasm of the younger woman, and on 25 March 1975 inaugurated the new gallery in via Alibert 18. Although from this moment Ferraria's inclinations began to prevail more decisively, such as the conception of a ‘theatrical’ space and the preference for works on paper, the following two years were marked by mutual agreement and by important exhibitions envisioned together with the Arco d'Alibert, including those of Gastone Novelli, Gino Severini and Fabio Mauri.

In October 1977, however, Mara Coccia definitively left the gallery for personal reasons, but above all because of the divergent vision that the two undertook with regard to their own exhibition choices. Ferraria decided to continue the Arco d'Alibert experience alone, of which she became the sole owner and whose brand remained her prerogative until its closure in 2006, unlike the spaces subsequently opened by the older gallery owner who had to take on other names, like the Mara Coccia Association opened in 1982.