Easy Irony. Irony in Italian Art between the 20th and 21st Centuries at MAMbo.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, MAMbo is hosting Easy Irony. Irony in Italian Art between the 20th and 21st Centuries, a large group exhibition curated by Lorenzo Balbi and Caterina Molteni.

Set up in the monumental spaces of the Sala delle Ciminiere, the exhibition presents over one hundred works and archival materials, spanning seventy years of artistic research. Irony is the common thread linking visions, eras and languages: from the paradoxical playfulness of Bruno Munari and Gino De Dominicis to the conceptual irreverence of Piero Manzoni, from the linguistic provocations of Adriano Spatola and Giulia Niccolai to the feminist challenges of Tomaso Binga and Mirella Bentivoglio. Politics, social criticism and contemporary visual culture are interwoven in the works of artists such as Piero Gilardi, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Chiara Fumai, Italo Zuffi, Maurizio Cattelan, Paola Pivi, Francesco Vezzoli and the duo Eva & Franco Mattes, who translate the digital humor of memes into art. The path is divided into thematic nuclei: paradox, play, critique of patriarchy, political activism, institutional satire, nonsense and dark humor, offering a cross-reading of the role of irony in Italian art.

The exhibition title, intentionally ambiguous, recalls a lightness that is only apparent, revealing the complexity of an ironic gaze capable of defusing stereotypes, deconstructing language and questioning power structures.