The GAMeC story is the story of its art collections, built on a series of precious donations, an expression of the providence and generosity of collectors from the Bergamo area. A story in the making, marked by the commitment of an entire community that has entrusted the Gallery with bequests and loans over a period of time, beginning in 1991—the year GAMeC was founded—up to today. A “today” that is not a set, expired date but a rolling deadline that slides forward from time to time, in constant evolution, bound closely with the history of the city and its future prospects.

The Impermanent Collection derives from this story and is a research, display and workshop platform—conceived as a fundamental part of the GAMeC’s cultural program drafted by Lorenzo Giusti since 2018— which reflects on the dynamic and in some ways contradictory character of a collection usually defined by a contrary (permanent) attribute.
Through a series of events the program will put in place an action that not only constitutes a research tool for existing heritage but also a space for reflection on the art of collecting and on institutional acquisition policies, and terrain for curatorial experimentation prior to the opening of the new gallery, and for procurement of new groups of works for the city.

The launch of the platform, which will engage the GAMeC in years to come, has been entrusted to Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi (Sibiu, 1961), who has been invited to design an advertising campaign that aimed to raise awareness of the crisis in the traditional museum model linked to collections, as well as the problematic transformation of cultural institutions into spaces for spectacularizing events.

The artist has also been invited to create a site-specific intervention inside GAMeC, as part of The Impermanent Collection #1, the first appointment of this project, hosted in 2018.

Curated by Valentina Gervasoni and A. Fabrizia Previtali, the exhibition described how the Collection began and how it continues to grow, presenting selections from its core in relation to the period in which they came to the museum, bringing together under one roof modern authors, masters of the twentieth century and contemporary works of art, thus supporting the complex articulation of GAMeC heritage.

In 2019 GAMeC hosted the second project of the platform: Libera. Tra Warhol, Vedova e Christo, curated by Beatrice Bentivoglio-Ravasio, Lorenzo Giusti and A. Fabrizia Previtali.
Conceived as a homage to creative freedom and emancipation from the restrictions of tradition, the exhibition project originated from the encounter between the GAMeC collections and a set of prestigious works confiscated in Lombardy and managed by the National Agency for the Administration and Destination of Assets Seized or Confiscated.

Through stimulating comparisons and associations, the exhibition presented the public with a rich selection of works by some of the most famous international artists of the second half of the 20th century, providing a unique opportunity to explore some of the key international artistic currents—from the Informal to geometric abstraction, from Nouveau Réalisme to Pop Art, from Minimalism to Arte Povera—.

In 2022, La Collezione Impermanente #3.0—curated by Sara Fumagalli, Valentina Gervasoni, and A. Fabrizia Previtali—marked the celebrations dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the GAMeC (which opened in 1991) by providing the public with a rich selection of works from the museum’s heritage, created by artists from various generations, from the 1990s up to the present day.

The exhibition constituted a fluid display which, on the one hand, aimed to explore themes that have characterized art history over the last thirty years, starting with works from the Collection organized in a series of thematic displays, with the intention of creating new connections and revealing unexpected contrasts and resonances; while on the other hand, it intended to emphasize impermanence, understood as an opening to new possibilities and future perspectives.

The exhibition also worked on temporariness, underlining the non-definitive character of its narratives thanks to cyclical rearrangements of the display throughout the exhibition period, alongside new presentations and interventions by young artists called upon to dialogue with the works to be found in the museum.

In 2023 The Impermanent Collection #4 presented the works of some of the major protagonists of 20th-century art history and authors of the latest generations—from Lucio Fontana to Giacomo Manzù, from Berlinde De Bruyckere to Yan Pei-Ming, from Enrico Castellani to Meris Angioletti—in an installation that was the result of the fruitful exchange activated with the public during the previous year on the occasion of The Impermanent Collection #3.0, which stimulated a reflection on the role of the visitor and his or her relationship with the museum.

In the year of the Italian Capital of Culture, the works in the exhibition also intended 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.