Bergamo 24121
Italy
The fourth cycle of The Orobie Biennial: Thinking Like a Mountain, the program held by GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo under the artistic direction of Lorenzo Giusti, will open on June 7, 2025.
Conceived as an alternative biennial format, Thinking Like a Mountain is a long-term program that is held not “every two years” but “for two years” and that does not occur “in a place” but “with a place,” staging projects arising from the encounter between international artists and local communities on a scale that is variable in relation to the dimension of each individual context.
Maurizio Cattelan: Seasons
June 7–October 26, 2025
Bergamo
The exhibition by Maurizio Cattelan (Padua, 1960) unfolds as a visual journey through the city of Bergamo, encouraging a reflection on the cyclical nature of life and history, on generations, on the rise and fall of values, and on the transformations of both the individual and society.
The exhibition title is a clear reference to what are universal signs of transition and renewal—serving as an invitation to reflect on the passage of time, but also as an exhortation to experience reality, in all its complexity and drama, through art.
Two new sculptures produced for the occasion, two recent works and a new, public, site-specific installation will be presented along a route connecting four venues: the GAMeC, the Sala delle Capriate at Palazzo della Ragione, the ancient Oratorio di San Lupo, and a square in the heart of Lower Bergamo.
Cecilia Bengolea: Spin and Break Free
June 7, 2025
Villa d’Almè
For Thinking Like a Mountain, the artist, choreographer, and dancer Cecilia Bengolea (Buenos Aires, 1979) has come up with a new performance to be presented in the former twisting room the of the Linificio e Canapificio Nazionale in Villa d’Almè, which draws inspiration from the mechanical, rotary movements of the machinery once used in the plant’s hemp and linen spinning departments and from 1930s Free Dances.
To bring the project to life, Bengolea involved a group of young local dancers, who will wear costumes created in collaboration with costume designer Alberto Allegretti, in which raw linen fiber will play a central role. Reflecting on contemporary alienation, the work draws a parallel with the historical alienation associated with labor during the Industrial Revolution.
Julius von Bismarck: Landscape Painting (Mine)
June 7–September 14, 2025
Dossena
In Dossena—home to the oldest mining complex in the Brembana Valley—German artist Julius von Bismarck (Breisach am Rhein, 1983) will create his fifth landscape painting, merging the depicted subject with the surface by painting directly on the mine’s rock walls.
Inspired by the aesthetics of engravings, landscape and mine studies that marked the work of many key figures in art history, von Bismarck uses lines and hatchings that flatten the view of the quarry into a two-dimensional image, reversing traditional trompe-l’œil techniques. This process deconstructs the tradition of landscape painting, revealing its idealizations and anthropocentric perspectives. Von Bismarck’s project ultimately seeks to reposition the human being within nature, not as something pre-human and “other,” but as a cultural construct evolving through history.
Francesco Pedrini: Magnitudo
June 7–September 14, 2025
Roncobello
The project by Francesco Pedrini (Bergamo, 1973) for the community of Roncobello involves the creation of a new observation point for the night sky at Passo del Vendulo, and stems from a reflection on the transformation of the forest ecosystem.
In an area where it was necessary to remove red spruces that had been attacked by the bark beetle, a suitable space has been created to host a new “poetic sky observatory.” It will consist of three installations: Posa is a flat area leveled with wooden planks that invites contemplation of the night sky and, during the day, allows the tracing of a solar analemma; the other two works are made of larch wood, typical of the area and resistant to weather: Polaris is a log tilted to about 42 degrees, which directs the observer toward the Polar Star; in Aerofono, a tree is transformer into a hollow structure that captures the sounds of the sky, offering an immersive listening experience.
EX.: Mountain Forgets You. Toward the new Frattini Bivouac
With Thermocene, an audiovisual work by Giorgio Ferrero, Rodolfo Mongitore (Mybosswas), and EX.
Summer 2025
In the summer of 2025, GAMeC will present a special project in collaboration with the Bergamo section of the Italian Alpine Club: EX., a design laboratory founded by Andrea Cassi and Michele Versaci will oversee the reconstruction of the historical Aldo Frattini Bivouac along the stunning Alta Via delle Orobie Bergamasche in the Seriana Valley.
The lead-up to the opening of the new structure will feature a series of events, including the project Mountain Forgets You, on view in GAMeC’s Spazio Zero: through research materials selected by EX. in collaboration with Studio Folder and supported by Luca Gibello and Francesca Chiorino, and the installation Thermocene—a visual and sound symphony created by Giorgio Ferrero and Rodolfo Mongitore (Mybosswas)—the exhibition will showcase the design process behind the new Aldo Frattini Bivouac.
Alongside the projects, the online magazine will continue to explore the themes of Thinking Like a Mountain through articles and interviews, while Radio GAMeC will be back with a new season titled Cara Montagna, curated by radio author and producer Ilaria Gadenz.
Thinking Like a Mountain is a GAMeC project.
Artistic Director: Lorenzo Giusti
Associate Curators: Sara Fumagalli, Marta Papini
Head of Magazine: Valentina Gervasoni
