Mambo is the Bologna Modern Art Museum, and the main strand of the Istituzione Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, which also includes; Villa delle Rose, Museo per la Memoria di Ustica, Museo Morandi and Casa Morandi. Located in the heart of the Manifattura delle Arti cultural district, MAMbo is the focus of various research based activities, such as the Cineteca di Bologna, the DMS workshop spaces, the Communication Sciences Faculty and many associations and art galleries.

The history of MAMbo is inextricably linked to the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, on which it rests the foundations of its research. The Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, (GAM), opened in 1975 in the spaces specially designed by artist and architect Leone Pancaldi. It was born in the atmosphere of intellectual fervor that pervaded the city at the beginning of the 1960s. GAM’s activities, spanning more than thirty years, were based on a binary project that combined; the presentation of cultural vanguards to the re-reading of Italian and international art history; the International Week of Performance to anthological shows devoted to the protagonists of the twentieth century; parallel and complementary activity within the Villa delle Rose, to the constant monitoring of young Italian artists represented by its Spazio Aperto experiment.

Mambo, sharing this extraordinary tradition developed a program of activities that takes the institution’s international position to reflect on the role of museums. The birth of MAMbo was part of the urban recovery of the Manifattura delle Arti, which includes the DMS university campus (in the former Manifattura Tabacchi), the Film Archive (in the former Macello) and Cassero (in the former Salara). The museum’s presence in this part of the city, originally the center of production and trade, strengthens the notion of the museum as a new center of cultural manufacture, testing, research and innovation.

Mambo is located in the premises of the former ‘Forno del pane’ (Bakery). The first section was built in 1915 by Mayor of Bologna Francesco Zanardi, as a municipal bakery aimed at solving the citizens of Bologna’s supply problems during World War I. The building was subsequently enlarged between 1928-29 to host the Ente Autonomo dei Consumi, closed in 1935. The recovery and transformation project that led to it becoming the home of MAMbo took several stages; demolition, recovery and structural consolidation, rebuilding of interiors, with special care taken to the respect and enhance existing architectural features.

With its permanent collection, the museum traces the history of Italian art from World War II to the present day, as seen through the experience of the former Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna. MAMbo supports the most innovative artistic practices and helps outline the routes of contemporary art, through an exhibition program focused on research and experimentation.

Collection: The Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna’s collections have undergone a complex, yet necessary reconfiguration following MAMbo’s opening in May 2007. This project was also initiated in view of the forthcoming definition of new exhibition spaces within Palazzo d’Accursio, which will grant visibility to its set of works from the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth century. The institution’s various threads hence cooperate in an integrated municipal system led by the Museo Morandi.

Within this system, MAMbo is the strand most devoted to contemporary artistic research, committed to innovative cultural projects and the need for an up-to-date critical assessment of languages and trends in art of the present. Such tendencies have always characterized the activities and institutional goals of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna; maintaining this tradition, however, requires an unrelenting and perhaps paradoxical methodological transgression which MAMbo interprets today as the need for an overview of emerging art, without losing sight of those artistic occurrences which, more than merely involving the Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, have grounded its foundation. Study of the present and investigations of presuppositions are therefore the main research areas currently engaging the museum.

Collections Archive: Istituzione Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna holds over 5,000 works, more than 800 of which are preserved at the Museo Morandi; the repository of a specific collection of the utmost importance dedicated to the master from Bologna. The collections are divided into Historical and Contemporary collections, with 1945 marking the date to divide the two collections. A selection of the collection is open to the public in the permanent exhibition area in MAMbo’s first floor. It undergoes a periodical turnover according to specific thematic articulations. Most of the works, including all of the Historical collections which still lack a more adequate exhibiting venue, are kept in storage but are accessible on request and by appointment, to scholars and individual visitors.

Most outstanding projects in recent years:

Trisha Donnelly, February 21st–April 13th, 2009, Curated by Andrea Viliani;

Natasha Sadr Haghighian, Solo Show, September 7th–November 2nd, 2008, Curated by Andrea Viliani;

Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, April 20th–June 8th, 2008, Curated by Gianfranco Maraniello and Andrea Viliani, a joint project by K21 Kunstsammlung NRW and MAMbo;

Time Code, Knut Asdam, Riccardo Benassi, Pavel Braila, Loulou Cherinet, Pierre Coulibeuf, Simonetta Fadda, Shona Illingworth, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta Kalleinen, Almagul Menlibayeva, Ottonella Mocellin and Nicola Pellegrini, Moser & Schwinger, Roberta Piccioni, Sara Rossi, Martin Sastre, Kjersti Sundland, Alejandro Vidal, November 15th, 2007–June 12th, 2008, Curated by Fabiola Naldi and Alessandra Pioselli.

MAMbo’s heritage is composed of a collection of more than 20,000 books, mainly constituted by monographs and catalogues of modern and contemporary art, national and international works, acquired thanks to a continuously active publication exchange with leading Italian and foreign museums. Part of this heritage, composed of ca. 9000 volumes and 3000 specialized magazines, composes the Library and the newspaper and periodical library of MAMbo. Specializing in contemporary art, the library is open to the public for reference. It is a comfortable environment and not only a place to study, but a space for meetings dedicated to the presentation of books, such as discussions with authors, artists and critics.

The library offers bibliographic reference material to deepen the awareness and understanding of artists and the topics presented through exhibitions, thanks to a particularly broad reaching research campaign that aims to purchase all relevant publications, and in turn enriches the museum’s heritage. The cataloguing and the inventory in SBN of this area has been completed and is available for online reference on the site of the general catalogue of Polo Bolognese (UBO), of the Sistema Bibliotecario Nazionale (SBN) (National Library System).

MAMbo’s Educational Department aims its activities to the public: children, young people and adults, schools and organised groups. The educational program takes a varied approach; guided tours, focused tours and workshops. The program is dedicated to considering all exhibitions and the permanent collection.

The Educational Department is privileged to facilitate the relationship between the work of art and the visitor, to promote greater awareness of the art works and suggest new associations. The educational program responds to the varied receptive and communicative skills of different areas of the public. Special paths for professional development are addressed through meetings between teachers and professionals.

The library has a space dedicated to children and young children, making available a wide choice of Italian and foreign books about contemporary art. The MAMbo Children’s Library is animated with educational paths and workshop activities organised by the Educational Department.

In addition to working with the public, the museum cooperates with cultural and academic institutions on a program that aims to stimulate debates on contemporary culture through the involvement of scholars.

Edizioni MAMbo was created in 2008 as the publishing activity of the Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, to fulfil the ambition to design and publish volumes representing the mission and the operational practice. The opportunity to oversee all aspects of its own publishing projects, from the choice of the titles to the care taken over delicate technical details, represents a further opportunity to bring the museum ‘out of the box’, and highlight its dynamic role in documentation and recording.

The publications of the Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna accompany exhibitions and are always the result of a lively dialogue with artists. The publications are therefore characterised by layouts that reference the artistic and curatorial interests of each project.

Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna has a total space of 9,500 m2. Galleries consume 2600 m2 of this.