In 2025, GAMeC will bring Maurizio Cattelan to Bergamo, who will be the focus of the exhibition in the historical Palazzo della Ragione, the museum’s summer venue since 2018. Exceptionally in 2025, as part of Thinking Like a Mountain, the exhibition project of the renowned Italian artist will extend beyond the Palazzo’s walls, thanks to a collaboration with the Municipality of Bergamo.

After the first two cycles of events for Thinking Like a Mountain held in 2024, in 2025 the biennial programme of GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo will again actively involve the communities of the Bergamo Province territory thanks to the participation of international artists.

Early previews of the 2025 programme of GAMeC, in light of the forthcoming opening of the museum’s new venue, scheduled for fall 2026. With a rich series of artistic projects on the territory of the Province of Bergamo, with a focus on the pre-Alpine areas, on the Bergamo valleys, and urban green areas, GAMeC’s widespread two-year programme Thinking Like a Mountain continues, under the artistic direction of Lorenzo Giusti.

In 2025 Maurizio Cattelan will be the great protagonist of the upcoming exhibition in the historical Palazzo della Ragione, GAMeC’s summer venue since 2018. Exceptionally on this occasion, in keeping with the spirit of Thinking Like a Mountain, the project will extend outside the walls of the Palazzo thanks to the collaboration with the Municipality of Bergamo, bringing the most internationally renowned Italian artist—known for his bold and innovative approach—to confront public space.

Beside the site-specific works by Maurizio Cattelan in Bergamo (opening in June 2025), the programme will feature international artists engaged in the development of projects born out of encounters with different local communities. Among them: Atelier dell’Errore, Bianca Bondi, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Asunción Molinos Gordo, Francesco Pedrini, and Julius von Bismarck, joined by film productions by Agnese Galiotto, Giulio Squillacciotti, and Invernomuto and Michela De Mattei.

A special edition of the Premio Lorenzo Bonaldi per l’Arte – EnterPrize, the first international acknowledgment dedicated to curators under 30, conceived by the GAMeC in 2003 with the support of the Gruppo Bonaldi, will also be presented in 2025. The detailed programme will be announced on the occasion of a presentation to the press scheduled on December 2024.

THE PROJECT

In light of the forthcoming opening of the museum’s new venue, scheduled for fall 2026, in 2024 GAMeC is curating Thinking Like a Mountain, a widespread cultural programme that in the two-year period 2024-2025 will involve the territory of the Province of Bergamo, from the pre-Alpine areas to the towns of the Bergamo valleys, to the urban parks of the provincial capital and the surrounding municipalities; an itinerary of shared artistic experiences that the Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea has decided to activate with local communities in order to reflect on issues of sustainability and community, as well as to give way to a debate on the role of art institutions in the local context.

Recently presented at the Lyon Biennial as an alternative biennial format as part of IBA’s 11th General Assembly, and renamed in that context The Orobie Biennial, Thinking Like a Mountain aspires to offer a contribution of experiences revolving around the process of revising biennial formats, basing its planning on three principles in contrast with the established ones: “more localized,” “long-term,” and “scaled.” The Orobie Biennial is an event held not “every two years” but rather “for two years.” It is one that does not happen “in a place”, but “with a place”, staging projects arising from the encounter between international artists and local communities on a scale that is not “the bigger the better” but sustainable and variable in respect of the scale of each individual context.

Thinking Like a Mountain is a project by the GAMeC

Artistic Director: Lorenzo Giusti
Associate Curators: Sara Fumagalli, Marta Papini
Head of Magazine: Valentina Gervasoni