Visit Bologna's Modern Art Museum

MAMbo, or the Bologna Modern Art Museum, is the leading space for the exhibition of Modern Art in Bologna and one of the leading institutions in Italy. It is 9,500m² of space in the city which is entirely devoted to visual culture and experimentation. The building itself is a former bakery on Don Minzoni Street where creativity is now born and nourished, instead of edible treats. Still, it is a site that delights the senses and engages the viewers to react, comment, learn and contribute. The permanent collection is made up of Italian art from World War II to the present day and there are also regular exhibitions of visiting collections and artists. For serious fans of modern art, this is not only a must-see while in Bologna but, also, while in Italy. Just find a holiday rental in Emilia-Romagna and spend a day exploring the city of Bologna and her extraordinary modern art museum.

The new location opened in 2007 but the museum has much older origins in the city. The Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, (GAM), opened in 1975 in specially designed facility by artist and architect Leone Pancaldi. The galleries activities spanned over thirty years and sought to encourage the re-reading of Italian and international art history, put on shows exploring the protagonists of the twentieth century and educate younger generations of artists. MAMbo was part of the urban renewal of the Manifattura delle Arti, which includes the DMS university campus, the Film Archive and Cassero. The museum's presence in this part of the city, originally the centre of industry and trade, strengthens the notion of the museum as a new centre of cultural manufacture, testing, research and innovation.

MAMbo supports the most innovative artistic practices and helps support contemporary art, through an exhibition program focused on research and experimentation. The museum devotes large-scale solo shows to well-known Italian and foreign artists, in a perspective open to research and to dialogue between the works and the display context. Notable exhibitions, of the past include the works of artists such as Luigi Ontani, Jeroen de Rijke and Willem de Rooij, Giuseppe Penone, Giorgio Morandi (in collaboration with the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art) Trisha Donnelly, Sarah Morris, Seth Price, Gilberto Zorio, Matthew Day Jackson, Marcel Broodthaers, Plamen Dejanoff.

Currently, there are two exhibitions on display until well into the new year; “Morandi a Vent'anni”, which presents works from the 1910s by Morandi, a 20th century Italian master, and “Il segno inciso di Giorgio Morandi. Matrici e stampe a confronto” dedicated to the art of engraving with fourteen carefully-selected plates, accompanied by the prints made from them, most of which come from the Museo’s own collection. These kinds of complementary exhibitions are typical of the museum and are why it truly shouldn't be missed by those visiting Emilia-Romagna.