The Impermanent Collection (La Collezione Impermanente) is a research, exhibition, and workshop platform that since 2018 has highlighted the hybrid nature of the GAMeC Collection, reflecting on its dynamic and at times contradictory character. After the first installment of the project—which traced the history of the Museum’s Collection—and the second—which placed the Collection in dialogue with a nucleus of works confiscated in Lombardy and destined for the Gallery—the third exhibition of the cycle was conceived as an active display to coincide with the celebrations dedicated to GAMeC’s thirtieth anniversary, and presented the public with a rich selection of works from the museum’s storerooms produced by artists of various generations, from the 1990s right up to the present day.

In 2022, The Impermanent Collection #3.0 triggered a reflection on the role of the visitor and his or her relationship with the museum, starting from a number of questions: what kind of dialogue with the public does the museum wish to establish around the collections, viewed as a shared heritage? What experience of it should be offered and with what purpose? What role should be attributed to visitors in the presentation and construction of the museum collection?

The exhibition aimed to emphasize the dialogue with visitors, who were called upon to play an active role through the declaration of their preferences in relation to the works on show: which work they would have liked to see again in a subsequent display, and why. The materials collected were subjected to careful analysis by the museum, and on the occasion of The Impermanent Collection #4, a new display will be presented on the basis of this fruitful exchange held with the visiting public.

In particular, this participatory designing of the new exhibition path will feature nine thematic rooms each revolving around one of the works chosen as the subject of visitors’ preferences. The works will thus spearhead innovative dialogues with other works selected by the exhibition curators with a view to highlighting different perspectives on each work and possible new interpretations of it.

In the year of the Italian Capital of Culture, the works in the exhibition also intend to pay homage to the city of Bergamo, in the experiences of local artists who have portrayed it and in those of international artists who, through their artistic research, have established a relationship with the city and with GAMeC, or again through the work of artists who have studied and taught at the G. Carrara Academy of Fine Arts, restoring the image of the lively cultural context that has long characterized the city.

Artists on show: Getulio Alviani, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Meris Angioletti, Hans Jean Arp, Gabriele Basilico, Carlo Benvenuto, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Felice Casorati, Enrico Castellani, Piero Cattaneo, Sonia Ciscato, Italo Cremona, Mario Cresci, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Wim Delvoye, Ettore Favini, Gianfranco Ferroni, Mario Finazzi, Roland Fischer, Lucio Fontana, Anna Franceschini, Alberto Galmozzi, Arturo Ghergo, Oscar Giaconia, Daiga Grantina, Calisto Gritti, Christiane Lӧhr, Giacomo Manzù, Nicola Martini, Eva and Franco Mattes, Felipe Meres, Yan Pei-Ming, Ennio Morlotti, Anton Zoran Mušič, Ornaghi & Prestinari, Aitor Ortiz, Giuseppe Penone, Cesare Pietroiusti, Rinaldo Pigola, Pietro Privitera, Ottone Rosai, Pablo Reinoso, Giorgio Rigon, Sofia Riva, Alberto Savinio, Augusto Sciacca, Turi Simeti, Ettore Spalletti, Mark Tobey, Federico Tosi, Victor Vasarely, Vedovamazzei, Alberto Vitali, Luca Vitone, Alberto Zilocchi.