Giuseppe Bergomi. Sculptures 1982 / 2024

The exhibition spread between the Museum of Santa Giulia and the Great Mile in the Castle pays tribute to one of the greatest exponents of contemporary figurative sculpture, through 84 works tracing the Brescian artist’s entire career.

The itinerary, arranged chronologically, starts in 1978, the year in which Bergomi made his debut at the Galleria dell’Incisione in Brescia with an exhibition of paintings only, one of which, Ritratto di famiglia (Family Portrait), also opens the current exhibition.
This event, fundamental for his career, convinced him to leave painting for the third dimension. Therefore, in 1982, again at the Galleria dell’Incisione, Bergomi held a solo exhibition with his first polychrome terracottas, from which, given the presence of his wife Alma as a model, the importance of biography in the artist’s production is already evident.

The exhibition continues with sculptures of the calibre of Bagnante addormentata (1991) and Grande nudo di adolescente (1991), works that are emblematic of the phase in which, at the turn of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bergomi’s terracottas abandoned colour, recalling rather the ancient sculptural tradition, in particular the Etruscan tradition.

From the 2000s onwards, Bergomi switched from terracotta to bronze, giving rise to a new phase in his work in which colour, albeit on a new material support, once again becomes a characterising element. Exemplary works include Interno di bagno con figura femminile (2001), Autoritratto (2004). Standing out among the creations is the grandiose Ellipse, set up in the outdoor spaces of the Museum of Santa Giulia, in an evocative dialogue between the volumes and architecture of the monastery.

The exhibition continues with more recent sculptures, when Bergomi accepted the challenge of confronting public statuary through works such as Uomini, delfini, parallelepipedi (Men, dolphins, parallelepipeds) created in 2000 for the Nagoya aquarium in Japan, or the monument dedicated to Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso, the first public sculpture ever dedicated to a woman in Milan.

The exhibition is ideally closed by the magnificent Africa con violoncello, exhibited at the 2011 Venice Biennale, and the unpublished work Colazione a letto (2024), which pays homage to three generations of his family through the depiction of his wife, daughters and granddaughters.

The exhibition is part of the broader project dedicated to sculpture in the spaces of Brescia Castle that Fondazione Brescia Musei inaugurated with the exhibition Davide Rivalta. Dreams of Glory (Castle, 26 May 2023-15 January 2024), identifying precisely in this iconic place a space to be dedicated to the enhancement of plastic art.

In the Santa Giulia Museum, on the other hand, the dialogue with the spaces of the Unesco Corridor is in ideal continuity with the experience of Palcoscenici archeologici (Archaeological stages), which in the last three years has brought artists such as Francesco Vezzoli, Emilio Isgrò and Fabrizio Plessi to confront themselves with the architecture of the monumental complex of Santa Giulia and the Archaeological Area.

The tour is completely free of charge and accessible to the public via the UNESCO Corridor.

Summer timetable (1 June – 30 settembre):

• Mondays (non-holidays): Closed
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 10.00 a.m. – 7.00 p.m.
• Last admission: 6.15 p.m.

Winter hours (1 October – 31 May):

• Mondays (non-holidays): Closed
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 10.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m.
• Last admission: 5.15 p.m.