Alberto Garutti (Galbiate, 1948), an artist and a lecturer, has been professor at the Academy of Bologna from 1990 to 1993, Academy of Brera in Milan from 1993 to 2013, Politecnico of Milan and IUAV in Venice.
During his career Garutti has been invited to major international events and institutions such as the Venice Biennale in 1990, 2010 and 2014; the 2001 Istanbul Biennial; the 2000 and 2005 editions of Arte all’Arte and the Memory Marathon held at Serpentine Gallery of London in 2012.
His research about an open dialogue between contemporary art, public and public space, gave him the opportunity to create artworks for cities and museums all over the world. Among his most famous works: “To those born today” in Bergamo (1998), Gent on the occasion of the Over the Edges exhibition at the S.M.A.K. Museum (2000), Istanbul (2001), Moscow in collaboration with the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, as part of the Impossible Community show (2011) , Plovdiv (2018) and Rome (2019); “Little Museion” in Bolzano (2001); “Dedicated to the inhabitants of the houses” for the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (2002); a site specific artwork for Fondazione Zegna in Trivero (2009); the work commissioned by Hines Italia for Porta Nuova district in Milan (2012); “Every step I have taken in my life has led me here, now” in Siena (2004), Antwerp (2007), Malpensa Airport (2010) and Cadorna Station (2011) in Milan, Santa Maria Novella Square in Florence (2015), Lugano at the LAC Museum (Switzerland), Kaunas (2019).
First shown at Fondazione Remotti in Camogli, his work entitled “Temporali” was presented at MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo in Rome in 2009, as part of the cycle Dialoghi con la città, at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin (2010), at the Vitra Design Museum (2013), at the Triennale Museum in Milan (2015), at Palazzo Cusani in Milan as part of the I’ll Be There Forever show (2015) and at Palazzo Fortuny on the occasion of the Intuition exhibition, a collateral event at Venice Biennale.
Garutti has held many solo shows in private spaces, and he has shown his work in many galleries in both Italy and abroad, including Paul Maenz Gallery in Cologne, Galleria Massimo Minini in Brescia, Magazzino d’Arte Moderna in Rome, Studio Guenzani and Galleria Marconi in Milan, Studio la Città in Verona, Buchmann Galerie in Lugano and Berlin, Galleria Enrico Astuni in Bologna.
His work has been displayed in numerous group exhibitions held in museums and public spaces especially of interest are as well as Wir sind die anderen curated by Jan Hoet at M.A.R.T.A. museum in Herford (2001); Luna Park Arte Fantastica at Villa Manin, Codroipo (2005); ITALICS, Arte italiana fra tradizione e rivoluzione 1968-2008 held at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (2008) – both curated by Francesco Bonami; Terre vulnerabili at the Hangar Bicocca (2011); Soleil Politique curated by Pierre Bal-Blanc at Museion in Bolzano (2014); Brera in Contemporaneo at Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan (2015); The Pagad at Galleria Massimo de Carlo in Milan (2016).
He was part of the jury for the Furla Art Prize, he chaired the jury for the most recent edition of Italian Studio Program at the MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. In 2009 he won the Terna 02 and the Prize for Culture in the city of Ghent. In 2011 his work for the Corale Vincenzo Bellini (2000) was selected by Creative Time, New York, out of 100 public projects for the Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011 show.
In coordination with his solo exhibition at PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea in Milan, opened in the fall of 2012, curated by Paola Nicolin and Hans Ulrich Obrist was published by Walther König e Mousse Publishing the book “Alberto Garutti, didascalia/caption”.
In 2019 Alberto Garutti presented three public artworks near Caorle (Italy), as he won the International Art Contest Three thresholds at Ca’ Corniani announced by Assicurazioni Generali – Genagricola S.p.A. in 2017. In the same year the public artwork “Ai nati oggi” has been installed at Piazza del Popolo in Rome as part of the exhibition The street curated by Hou Hanru, at MAXXI Museum.
In 2020 the artwork “Every step I have taken in my life has led me here, now” has been permanently placed in Loreto Aprutino,at No Man’s Land Foundation and ICC – Italian Institute of Culture Copenaghen (projects curated by Zerynthia Association for Contemporary Art OdV).
In 2021, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, Alberto Garutti presented a site-specific artwork for the new branch of MAXXI Museum in L’Aquila.
In 2022 his solo show “Credo di ricordare, 1974” opened in Museo Chini (Borgo San Lorenzo) curated by Alessandro Cocchieri, RAM radioartemobile and Zerynthia Association.
A complete monograph about his life and works (ideated by Germano Celant, curated by Antonella Soldaini for Studio Celant, with the scientific research of Eva Fabbris) will be published in the near future.
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