History and present of the Urban Art Museum:
The MAU – Museum of Urban Art of Turin is the first project in the phase of concrete realization, in Italy, with the aim of creating a permanent outdoor artistic settlement located inside a large metropolitan center, with the addition the added value of being an initiative started not from above but from the base, thanks to the consent and the fundamental contribution of the inhabitants. The original nucleus of the MAU is located in the Borgo Vecchio Campidoglio, a working class district of the late 19th century, located between the Switzerland, Appio Claudio and Tassoni courses, and via Fabrizi and Cibrario, not far from the city center.
A portion of urban space miraculously saved from the eviscerations operated by the Regulatory Plan of 1959, which has kept its lattice structure almost intact consisting of low houses with large internal courtyards with green areas, divided by narrow streets, all to favor the relationship of commonality between the inhabitants and a type of settlement, in a semi-central area of Turin, such as to make it a “town within the city”. Beginning in 1991, a work of revaluation of the social, urban and architectural peculiarities of the Borgo began. At a certain point, in the spring of 1995, it is considered to extend the sphere of intervention to art, involving citizens in the choices, given the initial availability of some of them, then continued over time until the current results. The Urban Redevelopment Committee invites some cultural operators in the city to provide their opinion, the Faculty of Architecture with Prof. Carla Bartolozzi, the Accademia Albertina, the artist and master of art Giacomo Soffiantino, and also the author of the present, at the time a member of the Board of Museums and Exhibitions of the City of Turin and artistic co-director of the Gallery of Modern Art, already engaged for years on the front of the relationship between art and territory.
The undersigned identifies in Borgo Vecchio the ideal setting for the concrete application of his intentions and, with the decisive assistance in the first year by the Committee, later by the architect Giovanni Sanna and from the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts, in the person of Prof. Carlo Giuliano, began a long project path, up to the current results. The first 13 works were built between the summer of 1995 and that of 1996, on a totally voluntary basis. In 1998, following an initial contribution from the Municipality of Turin, a second nucleus of 17 works was established. In 2000, the MAU became an autonomous Association. This will prove to be a key move for its take-off. 2001 was a fundamental year for the launch of the image and the definition of the role of the MAU in the city and national context, with the inclusion in the “Museum Charter” Since 1995, 112 masonry works have been produced inside the Borgo Vecchio, which have been joined, since May 2001, by another 35 new installations making up the “Galleria Campidoglio” for a total of 147, created by 96 artists. The latter, an organic component of the Urban Art Museum, arose by the will of the Campidoglio Natural Artisan Shopping Center, within the initiatives of the Urban Qualification Plan, promoted by the Municipal and Regional Department of Commerce. These are works in cm. 70 X 100, permanently placed on the walls between the shops of via Nicola Fabrizi and corso Svizzera, protected by plexiglass cases, which have been equipped with permanent lighting.
The MAU collection in 2014/2015 extended beyond the boundaries of Borgo Campidoglio. In October Vito Navolio created three “Author’s Benches” in the garden of the Turin Municipality’s Professional School Guidance Center in via Bardassano 5 / a. On 21 November 2014, 17 Author’s Benches were inaugurated, created with the coordination of Vito Navolio and Edoardo Di Mauro, by Navolio himself and by Ale Puro, Alessandro Calligaris, Margherita Bobini, Angelo Barile, Monkeys Evolution, Mrfijodor, Max Petrone, Luca Leonardi, Corn 79, Wens, Xel, Opiemme, Gec, Sisterflash, in the area facing the entrance to the AUCHAN shopping mall, for the twenty-fifth anniversary. In April 2015, together with the Evolution Monkeys and the Paracchi Area Committee, the MAU produced a mural work in the underpass of the Giardini, on the extreme border of the Campidoglio district, through an educational workshop with the Primo Liceo Artistico. In artistic September, the MAU, with Vito Navolio, created an artistic layout for a basketball playground in Piazza Arbarello, created thanks to the commitment of a citizens’ committee coordinated by Grazia Ballerini. On October 17, the inauguration of two large murals by Xel, at the new headquarters of the Mu Fant Science Fiction Museum, in via Reiss Romoli. It should be noted that one of our goals has been, from the very beginning, the involvement of young artists in the initiative. Having combined their work with that of already established personalities has undoubtedly facilitated a path of growth, also from an educational point of view, and in this regard the fundamental relationship with the Albertina Academy should be further remembered. In addition to periodically inviting young emerging artists to produce works, the competition held in the second half of 1998, addressed to students of the Italian Academies of Fine Arts, should be noted, which led to the selection of ten authors and the consequent creation of an equal number of wall installations. .
Between 2002 and 2015, mural works by Salvatore Astore, Enrico De Paris, Sergio Ragalzi, Angelo Barile, Theo Gallino, Antonio Mascia, Claudia Tamburelli, Santo Leonardo, were produced or, in some cases, entrusted to us. Giorgio Ramella, Roberta Fanti, Daniela Dalmasso, Vittorio Valente, Ferruccio D’Angelo, Andrea Massaioli, Antenore Rovesti, Bruno Sacchetti, Alessandro Gioiello, Gianluca Nibbi, Alessandro Rivoir, Matteo Ceccarelli, Marco Bailone, Paola Risoli, Pasquale Filannino, Fathi Hassan, Gaetano Grillo, Antonio Carena, Amar, Monica Carocci, Gianni Gianasso, Vito Navolio, Gianluca Scarano, Silvio Portzionato, Alberto Bongini, Style Orange, Opiemme, Xel, Wens, Maria Bruno, Alex Ognianoff, Max Petrone, Gec, Wens, Carmelo Cambareri , Mauro 149, Elisa Francioli, Margherita Bobini, Andrea Gritti. Furthermore, mural works by Alessando Rivoir, Enzo Bersezio, Antonio Carena, Antonio Mascia, Stefano Martino, Paola Risoli, Andrea Massaioli have been restored and partially redone. On July 14, 2004, the first summary catalog of the MAU’s activity was presented to the public, produced by the Piedmont Region. In 2006 our website was redone, created with cutting-edge technologies that allow, among other things, a virtual tour of the Museum. Furthermore, the interest of the media about the activities of the MAU has grown as well as the request for guided tours, and the Municipality of Turin has arrived, in addition to the inclusion in the initiatives of “Contemporary Turin: light and art” which has now become “Contemporary Arts Torino Piemonte”, the invitation to be part of the tourist itineraries of “Turin not by chance”. Educational itineraries were also organized with Palazzo Bricherasio and the IED European Institute of Design. The group of the Urban Art Museum on the social network Facebook currently boasts nearly 8000 members from Turin but also from all over Italy. In 2010/11, thanks to a specific regional funding, we carried out an educational laboratory managed by quattroQuarti s.c.r.l. Again thanks to the regional support, the educational activities, aimed primarily at local schools, are about to resume for 2013/2014. In 2011 we activated an archive of images of the MAU and Borgo Campidoglio whose manager is Barbara Bordon, whose skills currently also extend to the coordination of educational and promotional activities, which in 2013 we entrusted to Stefania Luberti and Vito Navolio, again thanks to a contribution from the Piedmont Region.
An important and constructive collaboration with the Turin office of the Oikos company has been activated since the early Zero’s. Color and matter for architecture. Oikos promptly provided us with its eco-sustainable paints for the realization of the murals. In 2012, on the occasion of the Architecture in the City Festival, we were hosted at the show room at the Piero della Francesca Center, for a debate on “Art and urban sustainability in Borgo Campidoglio”. The colors are supplied to us by the Colorificio Cavallo in via Monginevro 24. An important support is provided by Fabio Boine’s Tecnica srl for the reconstruction of the plaster. Thanks to the technical sponsors mentioned above, and to the contribution of the Piedmont Region and the city banking foundations, and to the collaboration with the Campidoglio Natural Artisan Shopping Center, the Parish of San Alfonso and the Diocese of Turin, we have just completed the restoration, over 50 meters , of the perimeter wall of the recreational club of the Parish of San Alfonso in corso Tassoni 41, and produced two large murals, the first on the theme of affectivity, the result of the work of street artists Orma il Viandante (Emanuele Mannisi), Sisterflash (Maria Bruno ) and Kasy 23 (Andrea Casillo), the second, just completed, on the theme of the family, created by Opiemme. In December 2012, the artist Xel, artistically decorated the three access towers to the parking lot and to the Antiaereo Refuge in Piazza Risorgimento, as part of a redevelopment project. Other artistic interventions in Piazza Campidoglio were concluded in autumn 2013, as part of the municipal project MURARTE, curated by STYLE ORANGE and MAU, made by Alessandro Calligaris, Carmelo Cambareri, Mauro 149 and Wens. On 12 April 2011 the Turin City Council established the Urban Art Museum Committee and the Public Art Subcommittee for the Campidoglio district. With this act, the MAU officially becomes a new city museum structure.
On 1 April 2014, the MAU was included in the recognized realities as part of a framework resolution on public art in Turin. Starting from the “Day of the MAU” in November 2007, our Association has strongly intensified its activities in the area by forging closer collaboration with the craft, commercial, artistic and cultural activities present. Numerous events have been organized or in which we have actively collaborated .. We mention the various editions of the Grape Festival, We Camp, Campidoglio never stops, Rocciamelone Arts & Crafts by night, MAU & Co., Remembering Gianni. Street Art to Art (charity auction in memory of the artisan of the Borgo Gianni Garino), Il Borgo adopts the AISM. Borgo Campidoglio for multiple sclerosis, Campidoglio On Ice, Fuori Schema 2013/2014. More and more requests for guided tours of groups and institutions, in addition to those traditionally organized for some years with the Turin Piedmont Museum Subscription, and now also extended to the Antiaereo Refuge in Piazza Risorgimento, in collaboration with the Diffuse Museum of the Resistance.
Project “Outside the Scheme 2014” The “Fuori Schema 2014”
Project intends, as has been the case for some years, to integrate the traditional activities of the MAU, consisting in the enrichment of the permanent artistic heritage of the Borgo Campidoglio, which does not exclude interventions in other areas of the city, and in its conservation and safeguard, by communicating and organizing common initiatives with citizens, associations, institutions, schools, parishes and meeting centers, commercial and craft activities in the area. This integration passes through moments of reflection also with meetings with associations that deal with disabilities, first with AISM, then with AIPS (Italian Association of Spastic Paralysis); moments that are foundational for a truly “open” museum like ours, on themes such as the use of urban spaces by people with motor disabilities, on which we have been working for some time, having created, among other things, two murals by Andrea Casillo, a young artist from Bergamo forced into a wheelchair. Another theme addressed in “Fuori Schema 2014”, always related to the concept of “open space”, is that relating to the family, in a broad and extended sense. The opening, in March 2014, of a real office, of about sixty square meters, with shop windows on the street, in via Rocciamelone 7 c, a pedestrianized street where many creative and aggregative activities of the Borgo Campidoglio are concentrated, allows us to enhance the exhibition offer and moments of comparison and aggregation. The activity relating to guided visits to the works of the MAU, the Borgo Campidoglio, and the Antiaereo Refuge in Piazza Risorgimento will continue with increasing intensity, in collaboration with the Turin Piedmont Museum Subscription, the Diffuse Museum of the Resistance and the ANPI, and the participation in the neighborhood parties organized by the Campidoglio Natural Artisan Shopping Center. The project makes use of the following intervention methods, which we are going to list:
Photo contest “Read = imagine a city” Borgo Campidoglio and Borgata Tesso are two historic working-class districts in the north west of Turin, with many common characteristics. Together with the Tesso Association, and in collaboration with the Istantanee Sociali photographic associations and “La Tribù del Bad Night Cafè”, we organize the photographic competition “Read = imagine a city”. This is the theme: “The city you would like: drawing inspiration from the Borgo Campidoglio and Borgata Tesso districts and the title of a book, or by taking inspiration from a landscape of the same, you bring out the city of your dreams through manifestations of social life, through shots that” know how to make last what is not hell “(Italo Calvino)”. The competition is free, open to all, the photographs will be produced at our expense and exhibited in our headquarters, in premises in Borgata Tesso, and in the circuit of the Civic Libraries. Exhibition activity in the new headquarters in via Rocciamelone 7 c, and at the Ex Birrificio Metzger In relation to the themes of “Fuori Schema 2014”, and to our traditional artistic activity, collective exhibitions will be organized, aimed mainly at young people from the art schools of the city and the Albertina Academy, and activities in collaboration with citizens and associations of the Borgo. With the Ex Birrificio Metzger, a cultural association that since 2012 has taken over 1000 square meters in via San Donato 68, in an industrial archeology building built by the Liberty architect Adolfo Fenoglio in 1872, making it a flexible and multipurpose container, exhibitions will be organized, and the project “The LAN Local Art Network” will be carried out, an initiative that aims to create a synergistic network of common initiatives between the places of art and culture in the Campidoglio and San Donato districts.
Production of new permanent works in the Borgo Campidoglio During 2014 new works by the artists Opiemme, Gec, Alessandro Calligaris, Sonia Bigando, Alice Arduino will be produced in the Borgo Campidoglio, and the three artistically decorated turrets by Xel in Piazza Risorgimento will be restored and partially redone, and the large mural painting created in 2002 by Sergio Ragalzi in via Ceres. Artistic intervention at the Maria Vittoria Hospital At the invitation of the Hospital’s Health Department, a series of artistic interventions are planned to revitalize the building on the outside and in the large internal courtyard. Works by Angelo Barile, Max Petrone, Ferruccio D’Angelo, Xel, Alessandro Calligaris, Opiemme are expected. Artistic intervention in the Paracchi area It is planned, in the former industrial area Paracchi, at the extreme eastern border of the Campidoglio district along the Dora, the realization of a mural of the Monkeys Evolution and the total reconstruction of a mural created in 2008 by the Albertina Academy, in collaboration with the same and with the Paracchi Area Spontaneous Committee. Artistic intervention on the wall of the Gardens “Fallen on the Russian Front” In collaboration with the Murarte project of the Municipality, it is planned to create a transitory work of art, that is periodically renewable, along the wall of the Giardino Caduti sul Fronte Russo, via Medici ang. Course Switzerland.
The President, Artistic Director and legal representative
Prof. Edoardo Di Mauro
