World Art Day is an opportunity to visit, even if virtually, the Bocconi art gallery, which since 2009 has collected hundreds of works by Italian and international artists, including a Gate by Letizia Cariello. Hundreds of contemporary art works, paintings, sculptures, light and fabric installations, murals, photographs. Hundreds of Italian artists, from Mauro Staccioli to Franco Mazzucchelli, Mimmo Paladino and Giuseppe Spagnulo, and some of the world’s most appreciated foreign artists, including Yannis Kounellis, Andrei Molodkin, Liu Bolin and Lawrence Carroll.
Since 16 December 2009, when Università Bocconi opened its doors to over 3,000 people for the opening night of the first edition of Bocconi Art Gallery (BAG), the University of Social Sciences has also been a point of reference for contemporary art. Thanks to a network of collaborations with institutions, gallerists and collectors, many of the campus’ indoor and outdoor spaces form a gallery open not only to students and lecturers, but also to the many visitors who come to the campus.
On the other hand, Bocconi hosts a research centre dedicated to the world of art and more generally to culture and creative enterprises, ASK, Art, Science and Knowledge, the laboratory of economics and management of art and cultural institutions and initiatives. The University also offers an educational pathway ranging from the BA programme in Economics and Management for Arts, Culture and Communication to the MSc in Economics and Management in Arts, Culture, Media and Entertainment, or the post-experience Master in Arts Management and Administration.
And in the very week in which the University, now back in the “orange zone”, reopens the physical classrooms to welcome students with the resumption of teaching in hybrid mode (digital and face-to-face), the Bocconi Art Gallery celebrates #WorldArtDay by making the voice of art heard loudly.
In anticipation of launching a new edition, BAG now presents a total of 105 works by 52 artists in the corridors and halls of five different buildings on campus. These include Gianluigi Colin’s large shroud, Nadia Fanelli’s trilogy, Marco Gastini’s paintings on paper and wood and Luca Lombardi’s mixed media. There are plexiglass works by Maria Teresa Ortoleva, resin on wood by Robert Pan, polyester by Giò Pomodoro, steel by Shigeru Saito and marble that looks like wood by Valeria Vaccaro. All find their place in the mix of styles and materials. And then there are the oils on canvas by Valentino Vago, the iron and aluminium works by Grazia Varisco, the neon lights by Vedovamazzei or the photos by Ulderico Tramacere. Often these are huge works whose language is colour, such as the wall paintings by Marco Casentini, the set of acrylics by Vittorio Corsini and the 13 pieces by Ivan De Meis, or monochrome, such as the folded canvas by Enrico Castellani and the acrylics by Amedeo Sanzone and Rodolfo Aricò.
The works on display are on loan, but over the past 12 years, thanks to the generosity of collectors and artists, Bocconi has actually amassed its own collection, which today includes 11 works of its own, including Emilio Isgrò’s Cancellazione del debito pubblico and Sonia Costantini’s triptych, from Sergio Fermariello’s Guerrieri, Massimo Kauffman’s Clinamen, Arthur Duff’s Fight-Flight, Elio Marchegiani’s Grande scacchiera, Alessandro Mendini’s wall painting Futuro, Lorenzo Petrantoni’s Sapere che conta, Mario Raciti’s works, Mario Arlati’s Potenza del colore and Arnaldo Pomodoro’s Colonna.