Did you notice it? Bologna is in the throes of a massive commercial turnover and, slowly but surely, is changing its face, expressing new avenues of interest. And there is no talk of a ‘city of food’, of an alternation of food places, in short, because the city seems to signal a new interest in art spaces and independent production, with an extremely contemporary and multifaceted identity. Thus the former (much loved) tea room in via Testoni 5d, becomes from today at 6pm MAY/Magazzeno Art Gaze, a non-conformist gallery for irregular artists, the former Japanese restaurant in via Saffi 16/2/e is transformed into Want Unconventional Lab and the former Omas (fountain pens made in Bologna) in via Filippo Turati 8/a is now Ottoastudio, a space shared by four photographers, a fine art printing laboratory, an interior architect and two textile designers . MAG/Magazzeno Art Gaze, in particular, leaves Ravenna, where it was born in 2016, and chooses Bologna as a new and exciting destination for the artistic world, recognizing that many things happen here. Or perhaps it would be better to say: many things happen again? For the ribbon cutting which will take place today from 6pm to midnight, Alessandra Carini, the gallery owner, proposes two artists with a point of view not too aligned with the art market and its critical side, creating an ‘Itaglia Pavilion’ (the title of the exhibition) for Luca Rossi from Imola, who in his provocative works packaged and visible only to the buyer, brings together the essence of the great names in the history of modern and contemporary art according to a personal critical thought and Andrea Alvigini, the lord of the ‘meme’, who uses popular images to rework them in an ironic or critical way. Not only exhibition spaces at the Mag, but also a welcoming bar corner and a rich bookshop curated by Bonobolabo, already present at Palazzo Strozzi, the Macro Museum in Rome and the Guggenheim in Venice.
The Want Unconventional Lab in via Saffi has its roots in the art of tattooing but also moves between painting, sculpture, self-production of fashion and music, a large space/laboratory which officially inaugurates on 3 and 4 May with a mini-festival ‘When we were kids’. Opened by Mirco Campioni, Riccardo Franceschini aka blackstar and Giulio Brunetti, the space hosts eight studios of as many tattoo artists – including that of Genziana Cocco, historic tattoo artist who founded the now closed SundanceTattoo in Bologna – and the first exhibition hosted was of Black Scars, artist and tattoo artist who rose to ‘dis-honor’ in the news due to his writing ‘Think free’, taken without permission from the walls of Bologna by Claire Fontaine and ended up on the Dior garments worn by Chiara Ferragni in Sanremo. But his style is truly personal. Here too there will be a bar and soon a music studio in the underground floors.
