Despite the G7 transport summit currently gridlocking the heart of the city and the approach of crowd-pulling events such as the Fuorisalone and the opening of the 60th International Art Exhibition in Venice, springtime Milan once again asserts itself as the capital of contemporary art thanks to the highly anticipated Milano Art Week 2024. An event that each year transforms the city into a vibrant stage, this year focusing on innovation and collaboration.
A team effort partially fine-tuned with the aforementioned design week, which will see some public art interventions, bridging art, architecture, and design, kick off this week and continue throughout the next. Such as the installation "The Birth" by JR at the Central Station; the project "ITALIA 70," curated by Massimiliano Gioni for the Nicola Trussardi Foundation, which invades the streets of Milan with an explosion of images created by 70 artists; the immersive installation in Piazza Gae Aulenti accompanied by the screening of the audiovisual work POV by Andrea Cassi, Michele Versaci, and Giorgio Ferrero.
The collaboration with Fuorisalone also translates into a series of guides and thematic routes among Milanese galleries.
However, the protagonist of Milano Art Week remains miart, the international fair of modern and contemporary art returning to the Allianz MiCo for its twenty-eighth edition, the fourth under the direction of Nicola Ricciardi. Under the auspices of the title "no time no space," taken from a text by Battiato, the 178 participating galleries, an increase from 2023, have been invited to transcend temporal and geographical boundaries, blending past, present, and future. Made possible by the over 700 exhibited works, complemented by two newly curated sections: Portal, a new vision of the present time, and Timescape, a journey through different temporal horizons guided by creativity. Also noteworthy is the Emergent sector, which this year sees the participation of 23 international entities.







Even in the case of miart, cultural initiatives extend beyond the boundaries of the fair, with special projects such as the first Italian solo exhibition of David Horvitz, "Abandoning the premises," curated by Nicola Ricciardi in a disused office in the Bicocca area.
Starting this year, just a few steps away from the pavilion where the fair of modern and contemporary art takes place, visitors can also explore MIA Photo Fair until Sunday, April 14th, an event exclusively dedicated to photography with entrance from Via Gattamelata 13.







Moving away from the city's fairgrounds, Milano Art Week offers a packed calendar of events, with 180 appointments including exhibitions, installations, conferences, and special projects. Among the most anticipated retrospectives are undoubtedly those already inaugurated respectively at the Fondazione Prada, the Fondazione Pirelli HangarBicocca, and the PAC, which will open its doors to the public for free on Saturday, April 13th.
The first is a retrospective entirely dedicated to Pino Pascali, presenting 49 works distributed in four sections: from the reconstruction of his most significant exhibitions to a selection of photographs portraying the artist with his works. On the occasion of Art Week, on Sunday, April 14th, a conversation between curator Mark Godfrey and artist Peter Fischli will take place at the Cinema Godard, followed by the screening of the documentary "Pino" by Walter Fasano.







At the Fondazione Pirelli HangarBicocca, art enthusiasts can delve into the figure and poetics of Nari Ward, one of the most important American artists, thanks to the anthology "Ground Break," which exhibits works from the last thirty years of his production alongside new works. The exhibition invites reflection on central themes of our time such as migrations, inequality, and marginalization.
Central themes also at the PAC, thanks to the gaze of Adrian Piper: "Race Traitor," curated by Diego Sileo, retraces her sixty-year career dedicated to the fight against racial prejudices, xenophobia, misogyny, and social injustice.
Other unmissable appointments of Milano Art Week 2024 include, undoubtedly, the solo exhibition of Magali Reus "Off Script" at the Museo del Novecento, the exhibitions of Erika Verzutti and Formafantasma at the Fondazione ICA Milano, and the major project that Triennale Milano dedicates to the eclectic designer, architect, and artist Alessandro Mendini: "I am a dragon. The true story of Alessandro Mendini."







In short, in this whirlwind of creativity and innovation, Milano Art Week 2024 once again proves to be an unmissable moment for art and culture lovers not only in Milan but beyond.