Facile ironia. L'ironia nell'arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo
from 6 February 2025 to 7 September 2025
Bologna
Facile ironia. L'ironia nell'arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo
Bruno Munari’s ironic dimension, brimming with imaginative power; Piero Manzoni’s irreverence; the dizzying paradox of Gino De Dominicis. Irony intertwines with the political sphere in the work of Piero Gilardi and Michelangelo Pistoletto; Tomaso Binga and Mirella Bentivoglio challenge female stereotypes; whilst Adriano Spatola and Giulia Niccolai experiment with linguistic nonsense. With Maurizio Cattelan, Paola Pivi and Francesco Vezzoli, the contradictory juxtaposition of subjects and situations uses irony to reveal the inconsistencies of the present, whilst Chiara Fumai and Italo Zuffi, through their works, expose the unwritten rules of the art world. And then there is the artistic duo Eva and Franco Mattes who, drawing on the language of memes widely circulated on the web, reveal a form of humour that characterises the internet today.
From 6 February to 7 September 2025, to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, MAMbo – Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, part of the Settore Musei Civici Bologna, presents the major group exhibition Facile ironia. Irony in Italian art between the 20th and 21st centuries, curated by Lorenzo Balbi and Caterina Molteni.
Designed for the spaces of the Sala delle Ciminiere, with more than 100 works and archival documents by over 70 artists, the exhibition spans a period of around seventy years – from the 1950s to the present day – aiming to retrace the history of Italian art through the themeof irony.
Even in the ancient world, with the figure of Socrates, irony was ‘the art of asking questions’: a wholly unique tool that allows human beings to take a clearer and more disenchanted view of reality, as it is capable of revealing its anomalies and contradictions. Through humour, parodies and witty remarks, irony also becomes an antidote, a fun and clever alternative to protect human beings from what afflicts them.
Ironic in itself, the exhibition title in fact evokes the apparent simplicity of the phenomenon whilst simultaneously revealing its intrinsic complexity. A contradiction that becomes a game in every sense and invites the public to question the nature of language, the clichés that accompany it and, at the same time, the way in which these influence our observation and interpretation of the world around us.
Italian artists from several generations have shared an anti-tragic aesthetic and existential strategy that embraces the ‘cosmic joke’ of reality.
This critical and imaginative context is explored in the exhibition through the development of thematic macro-areas, which serve to illustrate the various manifestations of irony and the trans-historicity of the phenomenon: paradox, its link to play, irony as a feminist weapon of critique against patriarchy and the Italian social order, its relationship with political mobilisation, irony as a form of institutional critique, as a practice of nonsense and, finally, as dark humour.
Artists featured in the exhibition
Carla Accardi, Vincenzo Agnetti, Enrico Baj, Nanni Balestrini, Riccardo Baruzzi, Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga, Luther Blissett, Alighiero Boetti, Monica Bonvicini, Benni Bosetto, Marcella Campagnano, Maurizio Cattelan, Guendalina Cerruti, Giuseppe Chiari, Daniela Comani, Roberto Cuoghi, Giorgio De Chirico, Giuseppe De Mattia, Gino De Dominicis, Antonio Donghi, Women/Image/Creativity, Lia Drei, Pablo Echaurren, Roberto Fassone, Lara Favaretto, Giosetta Fioroni, Chiara Fumai, Alberto Garutti, Aldo Giannotti, Piero Gilardi, Piero Golia, Gruppo XX, Ketty La Rocca, Sergio Lombardo, Arrigo Lora Totino, Lina Mangiacapre, Piero Manzoni, Lucia Marcucci, Eva Marisaldi, Eva & Franco Mattes, Fabio Mauri, Maurizio Mercuri, Marisa Merz, Aldo Mondino, Liliana Moro, Bruno Munari, Giulia Niccolai, Valerio Nicolai, Giancarlo Norese, Luigi Ontani, Rosa Panaro, Clemen Parrocchetti, Pino Pascali, Diego Perrone, Cesare Pietroiusti, Marinella Pirelli, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Paola Pivi, Lisa Ponti, Emilio Prini, Carol Rama, Silvia Rosi, Cinzia Ruggeri, Salvo, Alberto Savinio, Greta Schödl, Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio, Enrico Scuro, Davide Sgambaro, Adriano Spatola, Aldo Spoldi, Alessandra Spranzi, Valentina Tanni, Federico Tosi, Franco Vaccari, Francesco Vezzoli, Patrizia Vicinelli, Italo Zuffi.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue of the same name published by Società Editrice Allemandi, available at the MAMbo bookshop.
The exhibition forms part of the institutional programme of ART CITY Bologna 2025, organised to coincide with Arte Fiera.
From 6 February to 7 September 2025, to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, MAMbo – Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, part of the Settore Musei Civici Bologna, presents the major group exhibition Facile ironia. Irony in Italian art between the 20th and 21st centuries, curated by Lorenzo Balbi and Caterina Molteni.
Designed for the spaces of the Sala delle Ciminiere, with more than 100 works and archival documents by over 70 artists, the exhibition spans a period of around seventy years – from the 1950s to the present day – aiming to retrace the history of Italian art through the themeof irony.
Even in the ancient world, with the figure of Socrates, irony was ‘the art of asking questions’: a wholly unique tool that allows human beings to take a clearer and more disenchanted view of reality, as it is capable of revealing its anomalies and contradictions. Through humour, parodies and witty remarks, irony also becomes an antidote, a fun and clever alternative to protect human beings from what afflicts them.
Ironic in itself, the exhibition title in fact evokes the apparent simplicity of the phenomenon whilst simultaneously revealing its intrinsic complexity. A contradiction that becomes a game in every sense and invites the public to question the nature of language, the clichés that accompany it and, at the same time, the way in which these influence our observation and interpretation of the world around us.
Italian artists from several generations have shared an anti-tragic aesthetic and existential strategy that embraces the ‘cosmic joke’ of reality.
This critical and imaginative context is explored in the exhibition through the development of thematic macro-areas, which serve to illustrate the various manifestations of irony and the trans-historicity of the phenomenon: paradox, its link to play, irony as a feminist weapon of critique against patriarchy and the Italian social order, its relationship with political mobilisation, irony as a form of institutional critique, as a practice of nonsense and, finally, as dark humour.
Artists featured in the exhibition
Carla Accardi, Vincenzo Agnetti, Enrico Baj, Nanni Balestrini, Riccardo Baruzzi, Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga, Luther Blissett, Alighiero Boetti, Monica Bonvicini, Benni Bosetto, Marcella Campagnano, Maurizio Cattelan, Guendalina Cerruti, Giuseppe Chiari, Daniela Comani, Roberto Cuoghi, Giorgio De Chirico, Giuseppe De Mattia, Gino De Dominicis, Antonio Donghi, Women/Image/Creativity, Lia Drei, Pablo Echaurren, Roberto Fassone, Lara Favaretto, Giosetta Fioroni, Chiara Fumai, Alberto Garutti, Aldo Giannotti, Piero Gilardi, Piero Golia, Gruppo XX, Ketty La Rocca, Sergio Lombardo, Arrigo Lora Totino, Lina Mangiacapre, Piero Manzoni, Lucia Marcucci, Eva Marisaldi, Eva & Franco Mattes, Fabio Mauri, Maurizio Mercuri, Marisa Merz, Aldo Mondino, Liliana Moro, Bruno Munari, Giulia Niccolai, Valerio Nicolai, Giancarlo Norese, Luigi Ontani, Rosa Panaro, Clemen Parrocchetti, Pino Pascali, Diego Perrone, Cesare Pietroiusti, Marinella Pirelli, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Paola Pivi, Lisa Ponti, Emilio Prini, Carol Rama, Silvia Rosi, Cinzia Ruggeri, Salvo, Alberto Savinio, Greta Schödl, Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio, Enrico Scuro, Davide Sgambaro, Adriano Spatola, Aldo Spoldi, Alessandra Spranzi, Valentina Tanni, Federico Tosi, Franco Vaccari, Francesco Vezzoli, Patrizia Vicinelli, Italo Zuffi.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue of the same name published by Società Editrice Allemandi, available at the MAMbo bookshop.
The exhibition forms part of the institutional programme of ART CITY Bologna 2025, organised to coincide with Arte Fiera.
Facile ironia. L'ironia nell'arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo
Serpente, 1963
tecnica mista su masonite
150 × 100 cm
Opere correlate
Nessuna opera correlata trovata