Every sector of a museum, both internal and external, should always be monitored and questioned: personnel, financing, interfacing with the political world, maintaining contact with artists, opening up to the public. Choices – explains the Museum Director – are not and can never be final.
How did cooperation with Amaci start and what prospects can this network open up?
GAM requested to join Amaci in 2005 not only because of the prestige of the association but also to engage in a balanced and constructive dialogue with other museums, in particular with directors who participate periodically in general assemblies. The importance of the creation of a wide museum network devoted to contemporary art, joining different realities by territory and identity, is evident. The network does not participate in the mission of the single museums but uses a comparison approach, is a binding agent, a propelling thrust for new projects which single museums, by themselves, could not easily carry out. The history that Amaci has outlined during these years is very significant in this regard: creating an association from scratch, joining various interests, giving itself an incisive and serious image, at the national and international level, founding a magazine which has immediately distinguished itself from other publications on contemporary art, promoting especially the Contemporary Art Day which, by now, has taken up a specific and strong identity; this and other cultural strategies have energized entities operating in our sector. I believe that the prospects of this network can be truly unlimited and can cover all fields that help establish la raison d’être of each museum.
The creation of an ambitious project such as a museum causes several obstacles, especially in social situations such as ours. What were and what are the main difficulties you had to face?
A museum, in its complexity, can be compared to a living organism which undergoes deep changes in time, although it keeps its identity and specificity intact. If I look at the history of GAM, whose collection was started in 1950, I cannot help noting deep changes, almost always caused by conscious and not imposed choices, which have allowed the museum to grow, establish its standards, and modify its own aims and purposes. I would say that this necessary flexibility is a resource and, at the same time, the more obvious difficulty for a museum director. Every sector of a museum, both internal and external, should always be monitored and questioned: personnel, financing, interfacing with the political world, maintaining contact with artists, opening up to the public. Choices are not and can never be final. Having said that, I would add that in the last few years the most difficult task for GAM has been to operate at the same time in the current museum (the historical center on Viale Milano) as well as in the new museum center whose inauguration was postponed each time for a different reason.
What projects do you have in store?
The most important projects, in chronological and not in priority order, are the inauguration of Twister, a big network project involving ten institutions of the Lombardy Region, of which GAM is the leader, scheduled for 3 October; and, naturally, the much more complex and eagerly awaited event, i.e., the inauguration of GAM’s new exhibition center which will take place in the spring of 2010.
The Terna Prize 02 intends to match company’s best practices with the cultural ones, thereby favoring a reflection on the need to look at the future of the planet with a responsible attention to the environment and the energy. In your opinion is it an attainable goal and is art nowadays still able to favor a greater critical awareness?
I think that Terna’s goal is not only feasible but also indispensable. And, I also believe that art is the right instrument, perhaps one of the few instruments, which can still offer a new, critical, disenchanted look at the reality that surrounds us. I’m referring in particular to the artistic research which, starting from the “here and now” aesthetic dimension, is able to turn into instruments that can generate thoughts, amazement, and interest, in ever changing and unpredictable ways and languages.
GAM, Civic Gallery of Modern Art
The Museum, which was created in 1966 with the works of art acquired thanks to the Gallarate Prize, offers a wide selection of art reflecting the trends which have animated the national art scene from 1950 to the present. In 2010, GAM will inaugurate the new museum center (5000 sqm) which will expand the cultural offer and the contemporary art research, through more spacious exhibition halls for the collection, the organization of exhibits, events, workshops, and didactic activities which have always characterized GAM as an experimenting center open to the trends which marked the 20th century and inaugurated the 21st century.
2009-10-07
