Rather than gathering a slew of artworks together once every two years and throwing a bunch of insider parties at velvet rope venues, the approach from Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo (GAMeC) to their biennale is starkly different.
Described by the organisers as ‘an event that is held not “every two years” but “for two years,” and that does not occur “in a place” but “with a place”’, the Orobie Biennale is a widespread cultural program that, until the end of 2025, will involve the whole territory of the Province of Bergamo, from the pre-Alpine areas to the towns of the Bergamo valleys, from the urban parks of the capital to the municipalities of the plain.
Despatched to the location in its 2024 iteration (Biennale Gherdeina), Trebuchet’s suitably awed reporter found the starting point — the landscape itself — an inspiring aperitif to the large-scale artworks poised therein:
‘This close to the elements, perhaps all is indeed open, wild and true-eyed? Perhaps there is something to be found by following the guidebook like a treasure map, where artists’ works reflect totemic connections between human nature and the environment.
It’s easy to find such conjecture plausible in the drama of the surroundings; the sheer mountains looming, judging, sheltering and threatening; the babbling brooks and raging rivers; the ever rolling mists and the sturdy alpine buildings with their tight roof angles pointing skyward. All are signals of a place, and what elements life here must contend with.’ (Trebuchet, July 2024)
As the event moves into its second year, GAMeC announces the remaining features of the programme for 2025. Split into three cycles of events—to be inaugurated on February 8, June 7, and October 4—the program will feature international artists engaged in the development of projects arising from their encounters with local communities.
The first cycle, February to May, will open with a tour through the Bergamo valleys of three films produced by GAMeC and directed by Michela de Mattei and Invernomuto, Agnese Galiotto, and Giulio Squillacciotti. Also scheduled for February is a special edition (the twelfth) of the Premio Lorenzo Bonaldi per l’Arte – EnterPrize, the first international competition dedicated to young curators under thirty.
From June to September, Maurizio Cattelan will be featured in the next exhibition at Palazzo della Ragione, featuring recent work, while new work by Argentine artist Cecilia Bengolea will be presented in Villa d’Almè. site-specific interventions by German artist Julius von Bismarck and Bergamo-born artist Francesco Pedrini will also be presented in Val Parina. Julius von Bismarck’s work will be installed in Dossena, in the oldest mining district of the Brembana Valley. The villages of Dossena and Roncobello will host the works of Francesco Ferrero, Gianmarco Cugusi, and Roberto Picchi, winners of the 2024 edition of Sentieri Creativi.
From October to January, the fall cycle will include an exhibition by the Italian art collective Atelier dell’Errore for the GAMeC project room. In Spazio Zero, the exhibition will bring together the most significant sets from their production since 2015.
The South African artist Bianca Bondi will create a site-specific installation for the deconsecrated church of Santa Maria di Gerosa in Val Brembilla, a project that combines alchemical methods and experimentation with materials that foster potential mutations between elements.
In the Valle della Biodiversità of Astino, in collaboration with the “Lorenzo Rota” Botanical Garden, Spanish artist Asunción Molinos Gordo will develop an artistic-participatory workshop that intends to present new generations with a model of sustainable and multifunctional management, starting out from the principles of the ancient self-organized and communal legal form of land management known as “common land.”
The Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas will close the rich fall program with another site-specific installation—made in a participatory manner together with a number of communities from the Bergamo plain—with everyday objects and waste materials from across the territory, deploying irony to explore the notions of progress linked to the industrial imaginary.
Beyond the headline events, the biennale bursts with participatory events, art trails amidst spectacular alpine scenery, screenings, performances, and documentation via the dedicated online event magazine.
Pensare come una montagna / Thinking Like a Mountain is a GAMeC project
Artistic Director: Lorenzo Giusti
Associate Curators: Sara Fumagalli, Marta Papini
Head of Magazine: Valentina Gervasoni
Information and details
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
