ART CITY Bologna: 6 – 16 February 2025
The Special Program of this year’s ART CITY during and after the days of the Arte Fiera focusses in its new edition on the city gates. Originating from the Middle Ages, ten of the formerly 12 historic entries to the town are still existing and are even today important for the orientation in the urban space. Beside their names, which they also have given to the axes guiding from them to the centre, they mark the inside and the outside of town in the local everyday language. At the same time, they are the connection between the city and the surroundings. These places of transition, point to the historical background, but at the same time to contemporary art. Eleven Italian and international artists highlight the city gates with their interventions; ten of them directly at the monuments, the eleventh is a touring performance, which connects the landmarks. People coming from the direction of the Arte Fiera, will recognise the Porta Mascarella at first place.
Porta Mascarella: Angelo Plessas – Extropic Optimisms – Portal IV
Porta San Donato: Susan Philipsz – Deep Water Pulse
Porta San Vitale: Judith Hopf – Phone User 4
Porta Maggiore / Entrance of the MAMbo: Franco Mazzucchelli – Intervento Ambientale
Porta Santo Stefano: Gabrielle Goliath – Elegy
Porta Castiglione: Fatma Bucak – Tremendous gap between you and me
Porta Saragozza: Francesco Cavaliere – OTTO
Porta San Felice: Dread Scott – A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday
Porta Lame: Valentina Furian – Aaaaaaa
Porta Galliera: Andrea Romano – Anteo
Derek MF Di Fabio – BARK
How to visit the city gates
Porta Mascarella: Angelo Plessas – Extropic Optimisms – Portal IV
Arriving from via Stalingrado, visitors are greeted by familiar neon signs at the Porta Mascalella. There is a hand, an arrow, the peace sign and others. Even though, known from the digital world, these symbols have their origine in ancient Greek, Mesopotamia and the Buddhist civilisations. Here, presented in dazzling colours, they want to express luck and positive energy to anyone passing by: the hand symbolises welcome, the arrow indicates a direction and the peace sign hints to reconciliation.
Porta San Donato: Susan Philipsz – Deep Water Pulse
Today situated on a traffic island with noisy cars flowing around, the Porta San Donato is close to the lively university district. Susan Philipsz considered this environment but glanced at the same time to the inventor of the radio wave-based wireless telegraph Guglielmo Marconi, who was born in Bologna. Therefore, she installed an antenna at the façade of the oppositely located Museo Luigi Bombicci with its Mineralogy Collection. Herewith, she emits the recording of the sound of an underwater locator beacon to the gate. For Susan Philipsz, this regular pulse gives a certain order to the surrounding chaotic sound.
Additionally, the artist presents photos of the wreckage of Marconi’s research ship Elettra in the Mineralogy Collections. Once in the Museum you should have a look at the interesting collection.
Porta San Vitale: Judith Hopf – Phone User 4The Porta San Vitale was the city entrance for the “Salt Road”. Directing and coming from Ravenna it was a place of exchange, not only for salt, but also for information coming from the seaside. Judith Hopf installed her sculpture “Phone User 4” of her series with the same name here. It is a human being, cast in concrete, while looking at the display of a cell phone. Besides the link to communication regarding the origine of the gate, it is an ironic invitation to reflect our habits and to slow our pace down to recognise our environment.
Porta Maggiore / Entrance of the MAMbo: Franco Mazzucchelli – Intervento Ambientale
Unfortunately, the installation of Franco Mazzucchelli’s air sculpture was not possible at the intended location. Therefore, it is now in front of the entrance of the MAMbo, under the arcades of the building. Somehow, this is also a gate: from daily life to an artistic universe.
Franco Mazzucchelli implements his large inflatable PVC sculptures in urban space, to provoke an interaction with the public. Planed for the Porta Maggiore it should break its monumentality. As the name indicates, it was a major entrance. This gate leads from the ancient Via Emilia to the town. It was an important street in the north of Italy, connecting Rimini through Bologna to Piacenza and guided with its extension, the Via Flaminia to Rome. To this “Gate of Honour” entered popes, kings and condottieri. However, Mazzucchelli’s red plastic cone is with seventeen metres high twice as tall as the gate. Under the arcades in front of the MAMbo, it is folded. So, it is now much closer to the passing people and stimulates even more contact to them.
Porta Santo Stefano: Gabrielle Goliath – Elegy
Going back to earlier constructions, the present Porta Santo Stefano was built in 1843. It consists of two square neoclassical buildings. They hosted various institutions but are currently unused. Hence, they are normally not accessible to the public. One of the pavilions presents “Elegy”, a video installation by Gabrielle Goliath during the ART CITY. Shown is a performance of mourning. Lamented are women or LGBTQIA+, victims of rape and murder in South Africa. Additionally, the life and fate of each person is transmitted by texts written by people close to the victims. However, Elegy is not only personal sorrow, but also a denouncement of the culture of violence and rape against women and LGBTQIA+.
Porta Castiglione: Fatma Bucak – Tremendous gap between you and meClose to the Porta Castiglione flowed the Savena canal, which was important to the medieval wool and silk factories, since its water supplied the hydraulic energy to them. Therefore, the gate was also called “Gate of the Canals”. Despite this positive notion, the site-specific installation “Tremendous gap between you and me” by Fatma Bucak reminds at first glance once again a mourning and destruction. The gate’s passage is filled with stones with a melancholic song coming out of it. Besides recalling historic devastation, the artist also thought of the damages left by the recent flood in October 2024 in Bologna. Though, the installation is not only grief about past events. It wants to remind the possibility of reconstruction after a catastrophe, a new beginning out of the ashes.
Porta Saragozza: Francesco Cavaliere – OTTO
Currently the domicile of the Museum of the Blessed Virgin of San Luca, the Porta Saragozza is the point of departure of the long portico guiding to the Basilica of San Luca, landmark of the city in the close Bolognese hills. On the terrace of one of the towers, Francesco Cavaliere installed his brass sculpture “OTTO”. A vertical bar carries two masks with two megaphones, which make OTTO a sound sculpture. By climbing a ladder, one could reach these conical cylinders in the high of two meters to transmit their message to the environment. This action reminds late town criers, who spread news to the habitants. At the same time, it is a recognition of Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit philosopher and inventor of the megaphone. The spiral at the top of the sculpture is an homage to Pier Luigi Ighina, an Italian researcher on electromagnetism.
Porta San Felice: Dread Scott – A Man Was Lynched by Police YesterdayOnce the most fortified city gate, the Porta San Felice guides with the Via San Felice directly into the heart of Bologna. In the other direction, the gate points to the Via Emilia in direction Modena, which was hostile to Bologna, since they were supporters of the Ghibelline.
Dread Scott’s black flag with its white phrase “A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday” is a political denouncement against racial violence. Dread Scott made this replicate of the anti-lynching campaign of the US-American National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1920-1938) as reaction to the killing of Walter Scott in South Carolina in 2015. Sadly, it is still important to point to the fact that the police continues to murder people of colour on dubious grounds, without being punished.
Porta Lame: Valentina Furian – Aaaaaaa
The Porta Lame has an eventful history. Once it was one of the tollgates and in 1944 twice scene of battles between Nazi troops and partisan fighters, important for the liberation of Bologna. Hence, two bronze sculptures remind this. Whereas Valentina Furian refers to the current purpose of the Porta Lame. The gate is host of the Bologna Speleological Group. Already in 2023, the artist cooperated with the speleologists to enter the caves in the Regional Park of Gessi Bolognesi and Calanchi dell’Abbadessa, the area of Vena del Gesso in Romagna and the Tuscan mountains, due to her artist residency at the Nuovo Forno Del Pane. A film made on this occasion is projected in the gate’s passage.
Porta Galliera: Andrea Romano – AnteoAs the most majestic of the remaining city gates, the Porta Galliera was important as gateway towards Ferrara and by its closeness to the canals exiting the town in the same direction. The near fortress of the Cardinal Bertrando del Poggetto and later residence of the papal governments was destroyed by the people of Bologna as sign of liberation from the papal power. Andrea Romano picked up the idea of resistance in commemorating Anteo Zamboni, who tried to kill Mussolini in 1926. In consequence of the failed assassination attempt, Anteo was executed at the age of 15. Andrea Romano studied documents about Anteo and made drawings inspirated by sketches by him, which are on view in the Porta Galliera.
Derek MF Di Fabio – BARKIn occasion of the White Night on Saturday 8 February 2025, Derek MF Di Fabio reinitiated his performance BARK. It was a touring performance, which connected the city gates by their roundtrip. A group of queer people on bicycles surrounded the town, singing at high volume their own texts. The sound of the performance was transmitted live via NEU Radio.
How to visit the city gates
People might visit this open-air exhibition by walking or by bike. A cycle path surrounds the city in two directions, so it is a comfortable trip. Moreover, for the itinerary of around 8 kilometres, there will be tours by City Red Bus, parting from the Piazza Maggiore at 15 o’clock at the weekends (Saturday and Sunday) of the ART CITY. Reservation should be made here. For 15 € (reduced 12 €) you will get a roundtrip with a duration of around two and a half hours.
Alternatively, you could drop by when close to the city gates, while visiting one or several venues of the ART CITY program with its over 270 spots of exhibitions, performances, talks, installations and other cultural events. Besides, in our proposals and outlooks to the ART CITY, we mentioned which locations are close to the gates.