Viva Gino! A Lifetime of Art

For the first time, Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse is presenting works acquired over a number of years by Gino Di Maggio (born in 1940), an Italian collector who has spent time with and promoted artists who disrupted the international art scene from the 1950s and 60s onwards. This exhibition brings together fifty artists, from Yoko Ono to Daniel Spoerri, from John Cage to Kazuo Shiraga, from Lee Ufan to Robert Filliou, and from Marinella Pirelli to César, centered on more than one hundred works. It shines a spotlight on a collection that has been formed through a desire to support creation and publishing rather than for accumulation or investment purposes, thus revealing one of the art world’s personalities, who has remained behind the scenes for a long time. 

More than a simple compilation of exceptional works, this exhibition tells the story of an entire life. As his friend Ben wrote, it is a manifesto “for another way of living” with art and artists. By following a historical timeline, it illustrates how the collection has evolved through meetings. It describes Gino Di Maggio through his commitment to artists, his publishing work, and through the activity of his Milan foundation, Mudima, created in 1989 – the first in Italy to support contemporary art. 

The exhibition looks back at the collection defined by a taste for performance, for the search for interdisciplinarity in art, and for musical experimentation that expresses both humor and ingenuousness. 

The selection of works, paintings, installations, photographic works, drawings, sculptures and videos, reflects the rich diversity of the movements that have inspired him: Asian precursors such as Mono-ha and Gutai (Japan), Fluxus (Europe and USA), Nouveau Réalisme (France), and the Italian art scene with Spatialism, Kinetic art, New Figuration, Pop Art and Arte Povera. 

The grand nave of Les Abattoirs has been transformed into the Grand Hall of Fluxus, where entirely revisited piano sounds can be heard. 

Including works by: 
Arthur Aeschbacher / Eric Andersen / Arman / Nanni Balestrini / Roberto Barni / Gianfranco Baruchello / Ben (Benjamin Vautier) / Gianni Bertini / Alighiero Boetti / George Brecht / John Cage / César / Giuseppe Chiari / Philip Corner / Sergio Dangelo / Marcel Duchamp / François Dufrêne / Koji Enokura / Erró / Esther Ferrer / Robert Filliou / Lucio Fontana / Fabrizio Garghetti / Patrizia Guerresi / Raymond Hains / Noriyuki Haraguchi / Toshimitsu Imaï / Joe Jones / Allan Kaprow / Milan Knížák / Susumu Koshimizu / Jean-Jacques Lebel / Daniele Lombardi / Sergio Lombardo / Uliano Lucas / George Maciunas / Renato Mambor / Piero Manzoni / Walter Marchetti / Livio Marzot / Giuliano Mauri / Charlotte Moorman / Angela Occhipinti / Yoko Ono / Nam June Paik / Antonio Paradiso / Ben Patterson / Marinella Pirelli / Renato Ranaldi / Man Ray / Mimmo Rotella / Lei Saito / Takako Saito / Nobuo Sekine / Carolee Schneemann / Kazuo Shiraga / Turi Simeti / Gianni Emilio Simonetti / Giuseppe Spagnulo / Daniel Spoerri / Fausta Squatriti / Mauro Staccioli / Studio Azzurro / Berty Skuber / Kishio Suga / Noboru Takayama / Atsuko Tanaka / Lee Ufan / Grazia Varisco / Jacques Villeglé / Nanda Vigo / Wolf Vostell / Robert Watts / Katsuro Yoshida | The Futuristic Manifestos

Also at Les Abattoirs:
Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, January 24, 2020-May 31, 2020
Takesada Matsutani: prints, 1967-1977, Collection of the INHA, February 28, 2020-May 31, 2020
Sans réserves, the 60’s and 70’s new additions to the historical collection, February 28, 2020-May 31, 2020 (with works by: Hans Bellmer, Renate Bertlmann, David Budd, Alain Jacquet, Jacqueline de Jong, Liliana Porter, Judit Riegl, Jacques  Villeglé)
War and Seduction. Artist books from the collection and invitation to Béatrice Utrilla, February 28, 2020-April 11, 2020

With the support of the Fondazione Mudima in Milan