When the University Becomes a Widespread Museum: the Bocconi Art Gallery Returns, Even More International

Corridors transformed into meeting spaces with a luminous mandala, the atrium welcoming steel warriors, and a garden crossed by abstract signs and geometries: for one evening, Bocconi becomes a widespread museum, open to the city and alive with artistic languages that speak to the present. On October 2, BAG – Bocconi Art Gallery – returns for its twelfth edition, with an exhibition route intertwining 138 works by 75 artists, featuring an increasingly strong international presence. From 4 to 8 p.m., visitors can enjoy free and guided tours of both the works and the University’s buildings; at 9 p.m., the first concert of the new Isole Sonore series will take place.

Later, on November 26, Bocconi Art Gallery will touch in Rome at the SDA Bocconi School of Management campus, with a special event featuring artist Sidival Fila.

At the heart of BAG lies its ability to bring together great masters and contemporary voices in a dialogue that bridges generations, languages, and perspectives. Alongside historical figures such as Dadamaino, pioneer of the Milanese avant-garde; Richard Long, known for his Land Art works; Alan Charlton, master of the monochrome; and Elisabeth Vary, with her explorations of painting as environmental space, stand artists offering radical interpretations of our time.

Among the featured works: the iron frames of Grazia Varisco’s ‘gnomoni’, marking the passage of time; Sergio Fermariello’s steel warriors, archaic figures that rise as symbols of collective identity; Alessandro Mendini’s monumental wall painting Futuro, enveloping the Aula Magna with its yellow and white lines; Arthur Duff’s fabric-and-space compositions and François Morellet’s neons, which transform corridors into perceptual experiences; and works by Francesco Candeloro, Claudio Verna, Elio Marchegiani, and Mario Nigro, underscoring the centrality of abstraction in BAG’s history.

Recent works also play a role: Gianni Cella’s ironic installations, Mauro Baio’s suspended chromatic landscapes, and site-specific projects by Kaspar Müller and David Tremlett, created with the contribution of students.

What’s New in 2025

This year, BAG expands through a collaboration with the Morterone Open-Air Museum of Contemporary Art, bringing 35 new works to Bocconi and strengthening the connection between art, nature, and landscape. Meanwhile, the BAG Scientific Committee welcomes Anna Bernardini, art historian and former director of Villa Panza in Varese.

For the first time, students are not only spectators but protagonists: they contributed to three large-scale installations and created the annotated captions accompanying the exhibition, turning the show into a true participatory laboratory.

“BAG is a unique opportunity for us to foster dialogue between the university community and the city through the universal language of contemporary art. This edition places even greater value on student participation, which has made the project even more vibrant and shared,” explains Antonella Carù, Dean for Development and Alumni Relations at Bocconi.

Talks and Encounters with Artists

Enriching the day, starting at 5 p.m. in the Aula Magna, three thematic talks will provide opportunities for dialogue and reflection. The first, with the protagonists of the Morterone Museum and professors Francesca Pola and Severino Salvemini, will explore the relationship between art and nature, understood as a universal creative force. The second, Participating in the Creative Act, moderated by Antonella Carù, will feature art historian Anna Bernardini, artist Kaspar Müller, collector Ettore Buganza, and Bocconi students who directly contributed to the works on display. Following this, Writing About Art will be dedicated to storytelling and critical mediation: the students who authored the artwork descriptions will discuss with Susanna Caviglia and Anna Bernardini the value of writing as a form of interpretation and participation.
 

The Concert Opening the New Season of Isole Sonore

The evening will close with music. At 9 p.m. in the Aula Magna, pianist Cesare Picco will perform The Köln Concert Variations, in collaboration with Yamaha: a tribute to Keith Jarrett’s masterpiece that will inaugurate the new season of Isole Sonore, the University’s music series that brings to Milan some of the most fascinating voices of the contemporary scene.
 

A Growing Project

Since 2009, when it was launched thanks to professor Severino Salvemini’s vision and the support of collector Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, BAG has been more than an exhibition: it is a project reflecting the University’s vocation for connecting knowledge and creativity. Each year the campus transforms into a contemporary art gallery, hosting works on loan or donated by artists, galleries, and collectors, building a permanent collection that now includes twenty pieces, among them Cancellazione del debito pubblico by Emilio Isgrò, the triptych by Sonia Costantini, Arnaldo Pomodoro’s Colonna, Giorgio Milani’s Poetario, Lorenzo Petrantoni’s installation Knowledge That Matters, Massimo Kaufmann’s Clinamen, Elio Marchegiani’s Grande Scacchiera, Pino Pinelli’s Pittura R., and Letizia Cariello’s Gate #0.

To view art not as ornament, but as an experience that transforms our perception of places and people: this is the spirit of BAG, which in 2025 once again invites Milan to lose itself—and find itself—in its spaces.

Full list of artists exhibited at BAG 2025:
Rodolfo Aricò, Mario Arlati, Gianni Asdrubali, Mauro Baio, Doriam Battaglia, Valerio Bevilacqua, Liu Bolin, Francesco Candeloro, Pietro Capogrosso, Letizia Cariello, Nicola Carrino, Enrico Castellani, Marco Casentini, Lorenzo Castore, Lucilla Catania, Gianni Cella, Alan Charlton, Carlo Ciussi, Gianni Colombo, Vittorio Corsini, Sonia Costantini, Dadamaino, Davide Dall’Osso, Sandro De Alexandris, Philippe Decrauzat, Riccardo De Marchi, Domenico D’Oora, Arthur Duff, Fabrizio Dusi, Nadia Fanelli, Sergio Fermariello, Rainer Fetting, Lesley Foxcroft, Francesco Garbelli, Paolo Gonzato, Nicholas Howey, Emilio Isgrò, Massimo Kaufmann, Igino Legnaghi, David Lindberg, Richard Long, Lorenza Longhi, Tiziana Lorenzelli, Elio Marchegiani, Alessandro Mendini, Giorgio Milani, François Morellet, Kaspar Muller, Mario Nigro, Luca Pancrazzi, Lorenzo Petrantoni, Pino Pinelli, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Bruno Querci, Mario Raciti, Tomas Rajlich, Ulrich Rückriem, Claude Rutault, Angelo Savelli, Nelio Sonego, Esther Stocker, Niele Toroni, David Tremlett, Günter Umberg, Valentino Vago, Jan Van Der Ploeg, Elisabeth Vary, Michel Verjux, Grazia Varisco, Claudio Verna, Rudi Wach, Andrea Zucchi.