Casa Testori and Parco Nord Milano
Since 2016, Casa Testori and Parco Nord Milano, supported by Fondazione Cariplo and in collaboration with the Municipalities of Novate Milanese and Cormano, have been committed to exploring and defining the identity of the Balossa Area within Parco Nord Milano through contemporary art.
As part of the broader challenge #ilparcofacultura (“the park makes culture”), they have promoted a biennial competition for the production of site-specific artworks, which over the years have enriched the area, giving it a distinct and recognizable character.
THE PARK
Parco Nord Milano continues to pursue its mission of expanding urban green areas by regenerating and rehabilitating abandoned land, enhancing both its ecological value and its public use.
This vision has taken concrete form with the acquisition of land in the Cascina Balossa area, between Cormano and Novate Milanese: approximately 150,000 square meters of farmland, including three agricultural buildings located at the heart of the site.
Among these are large industrial-looking storage spaces and a particularly striking former tobacco-drying facility—all destined for new design interventions that will transform them into Park hubs open to the public and dedicated to cultural activities and environmental education.
THE BALOSSA
The Balossa Area, located between the municipalities of Novate Milanese and Cormano, forms part of Parco Nord Milano.
It is an agricultural park, its borders encroached upon by urban development typical of Milan’s first-ring suburbs.
Even today, it is affected by further transformations along the Rho–Monza axis, yet its position gives it significant ecological importance: it represents a key green corridor linking two very different but now well-established natural systems—the Parco Nord and the Parco delle Groane.
Closely tied, through the historic Cascina Balossa, to Lombardy’s agricultural heritage, the area is now in the process of redefining its identity through contemporary art.
NOVATE MILANESE, CORMANO, AND THE CASCINA
Novate Milanese and Cormano are the two urban centers that frame the Balossa Area.
For this reason, the municipalities collaborate in the effort to build a shared and recognizable image of the park as a collective public space.
They support the project by offering communication channels and acting as reference points for the engagement of local communities.
Cascina Balossa, meanwhile, contributes its oral histories and testimonies, preserving memories of the park’s agricultural past and the human stories of the generations of Lombard farmworkers who lived and worked there.
