In the year of Bergamo Brescia Capital of Culture 2023, gres art 671 was born in Bergamo, a new artistic and cultural hub promoted on the initiative of the Italmobiliare Group, owner of the area, together with the Fondazione Pesenti Ets. The project was born with the aim of reactivating and returning to the local population a former industrial area of over 3,000 m2 to preserve and transmit the memory of what used to be produced there by creating a place of cultural production. 


A redevelopment made possible through art and culture: exhibitions and meetings, concerts, performances, training sessions and workshops become opportunities to welcome and inspire the public, invited to free and constant interaction. gres art combines beauty and social impact, developing sustainable models that promote the well-being of the community, also through multidisciplinary, accessible and inclusive programming. A meeting place that connects the area with the centre of Bergamo and its day-to-day life. The number "671", chosen because it is the number of the road that runs alongside the former Gres plant, already reflects the strong link with the local area in the name of the project.

The Mayor of Bergamo, Giorgio Gori, had the following to say about the project during the inaugural event when gres art 671 was presented to the city: "This project adds a precious new piece to the city that we imagined, a city that no longer grows through expansion, eroding green areas, but through the redevelopment of what was there in the past, giving abandoned areas a new function and a new future. A city in which culture is a lever for territorial development and nourishment for the community. It is a magnificent project, which preserves traces of the past but projects the city into the future. An ambitious, high quality project, which could be in any major European capital and which helps us to imagine the city in a new, larger dimension, no longer provincial but European".

"gres art 671 is a project for Bergamo, but above all with Bergamo– explains Carlo Pesenti, CEO of Italmobiliare and President of the Fondazione Pesenti Ets. It is born out of affection for the city, which my family has been associated with for over a century. Its aim is to contribute to the artistic, cultural and social development of the area, together with its population. Hence the decision not to demolish but to regenerate the area through an intervention that enhances the history of Gres, maintaining the pre-existing building as evidence of the area's industrial vocation, which at the same time gives new life to the spaces around and inside the building. A work that redresses the link with the neighbourhood, the neighbourhood with the city, and the past with the present. Because a vision of the future starts from a memory of our roots." 


At the press conference to present the project, Laura Zanetti, Chair of Italmobiliare, explained that "gres art 671 is the first important piece of a larger project called Gres Hub, a non-speculative intervention with a strong social connotation, which fits perfectly with the ESG policies that have been part of the Italmobiliare Group's culture for decades. This operation involves redressing the link, not only from an urban point of view, but also from a social point of view, which passes through art, bringing people together and spreading culture, including that of peace."


Gres Hub is a district that extends for 60,000 m2 in a highly strategic area for the city, owned by Italmobiliare. Positioned between the SS 671, the airport and the university area of Bergamo, Gres Hub is a fine example of urban restoration whose mission is to revive a portion of the city that has been abandoned for years, returning it to public use. A place of work, study, research and hospitality, a residential and professional laboratory, Gres Hub symbolises a new conception of the relationship between the centre and the suburbs, between the city and the countryside.

gres art 671 starts its activity with SOLARPUNK by the NONE collective: a transmedia exhibition with three immersive experiences of Solarpunk practices. A speculative narrative that invites positive thinking about the difficult challenges that climate change imposes. A performance space, a laboratory of perceptive investigation that projects into a possible near future. An exhibition in which light, the central theme of Bergamo Brescia Capital of Culture 2023, is the protagonist.

 

NONE collective. SOLARPUNK
Bergamo, via San Bernardino 141
7 November 2023 - 7 January 2024
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 16:00 - 20:30
Saturday, Sunday: 10:00 - 20:30

free entry

More information at gres art 671 website