Thinking Like a Mountain

Sonia Boyce, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Chiara Gambirasio, Lin May Saeed, Studio Ossidiana and the communities of Bergamo, Brembate, Castione della Presolana, and Dalmine are the first protagonists in the biennial program “Thinking Like a Mountain”. 

The opening of the inaugural five projects will take place on May 17 and 18, 2024.

The GAMeC—Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo presents “Thinking Like a Mountain”: a widespread cultural program beginning this month and running for the following two years, will involve not only the museum itself, but also the territory of the Province of Bergamo, with the aim to create an itinerary of shared artistic experiences, reflecting on issues of rootedness, sustainability and community.

“Thinking Like a Mountain” is an expression coined by American ecologist and environmentalist Aldo Leopold in his posthumous book A Sand County Almanac (1949). In the context of the project, Leopold’s expression interprets the desire to adopt an alternative point of view on society, in order to foster a fascination for the Earth and an evolved participatory sensitivity in the territorial context.

Sonia Boyce: Benevolence
Bergamo, Palazzo della Ragione
May 17–September 22, 2024

GAMeC returns to the prestigious Palazzo della Ragione venue with a new site-specific project conceived by English artist Sonia Boyce (London, 1962). Boyce embarked on a collaboration with a group of students from the “Gaetano Donizetti” Higher Institute of Musical Studies in Bergamo, who were invited to perform and improvise popular songs in the heart of Bergamo’s “Città Alta.” In particular, the artist and the students noted how Bella Ciao has become a symbol of global and transgenerational resistance. This song, which resonated spontaneously among passersby during the filming in Piazza Vecchia, provided the starting point for Boyce to undertake a major reflection on the meaning of music, its value over time and its ability to unite, but also to divide. The dialogue between Boyce and the students shows a great deal about the process that led to the staging of Benevolence, an environmental video installation which originated from a performance made into a film.

Mercedes Azpilicueta
Que Este Mundo Permanezca (May This World Remain)
Brembate, Biodiversity Reserve
May 18, 2024

The Argentinean artist Mercedes Azpilicueta (La Plata, 1981) presents a new participatory performance dedicated to the theme of the rediscovery of natural spaces, developed as part of the third edition of the ON AIR—Argentina-Italy Art Residency project, stemming from collaboration between GAMeC and the Fundación PROA in Buenos Aires. The performance, which will take place at the Biodiversity Reserve in Brembate—a naturalistic area at the heart of an environmental regeneration and recovery project deployed by the Nuova Demi company following the cessation of quarrying activities–features three birds of different species, interpreted by three performers. The colors of the plumage of the birds will be the main element of the masks and cloaks that the artist has created especially for the occasion, together with costume designer Alberto Allegretti. 

Chiara Gambirasio: M’ama and V’arco
Castione della Presolana and Dalmine
From May 18, 2024

Italian artist Chiara Gambirasio (Bergamo, 1996) has embarked on a participatory project developed in collaboration with Fondazione Dalmine which originally took the form of a workshop focusing on the use of color featuring a number of “eyewitnesses” who, as young girls, attended the Dalmine summer camp in Castione della Presolana. For “Thinking Like a Mountain” Gambirasio presents two sculptures: M’ama has the form of a mountain merging with a wood stump, in a kind of embrace that the artist hopes will also include visitors. V’arco will be set up at an ancient bridge in the area of the former camp, and constitutes a sort of temporal and spatial arc that unites several dimensions: the mountains, the camp, the valley. The documentation of the creative process that led the artist to conceive the exhibition project will be available to visitors at the new Fondazione Dalmine headquarters, in Dalmine.  

Lin May Saeed
Bergamo, GAMeC
May 17–September 22, 2024

As part of the “Thinking Like a Mountain” project, and in connection with the ninth edition of the Biennale Gherdëina curated by Lorenzo Giusti, an exhibition paying tribute to the work of the artist Lin May Saeed (1973–2023) will be presented simultaneously in Bergamo and Ortisei. The artist dedicated all her research to the world of animals and the relationships between human and non-human animals, developing a new iconography of interspecies solidarity. The installation at GAMeC will emphasize the centrality the artist intended to restore to animal figures as opposed to the condition of subalternity to which humanity has relegated them. 

Studio Ossidiana in collaboration with Frantoio Sociale: Massi Erratici
Bergamo, GAMeC
From May 17, 2024

GAMeC will present the Massi Erratici project, developed by Studio Ossidiana in collaboration with Frantoio Sociale, which will reconfigure the museum’s accessible spaces through modular surfaces and volumes designed to accommodate multiple activities. These contemporary “stones” will move like a tangram figure, to be reconfigured as needs be in orderly or random, formal or informal arrangements, introducing an element of play to the use of the museum space given by the modularity of the pieces. The modules are accompanied by semi-transparent curtains, in an interplay of alternating weights and textures. Studio Ossidiana’s work combines pigments, stones, sand, and circular concrete in various ratios. On this occasion, sourcing has been done locally, and local artisans have been involved in processing, in order to draw on the long history of production in the Bergamo area, while reducing transport-related costs and emissions.

An online magazine will accompany the project throughout its development, collecting critical texts, reports and audiovisual contributions. Topics will range from contemporary arts to design, from architecture to agriculture, from human geography to anthropology. 

“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