GIORNI FELICI 2010

Casa Testori
25 June – 11 July 2010

After the extraordinary success of the first edition, from 25 June to 11 July 2010, 22 artists occupied the 22 rooms of Casa Testori in Novate Milanese for the exhibition Giorni Felici a Casa Testori. The house where the artist lived, consisting of more than twenty rooms and a large garden, was transformed into a real Kunsthaus according to a model that is very popular in Europe.
The exhibition represented an unusual experience of coexistence and exchanges between different languages and different artists, who were able to freely interpret each room of the house, including the kitchen and bathrooms. In fact, Giorni Felici was not just an exhibition, but an opportunity for young people who are beginning their artistic career to gain visibility through a constructive comparison with great masters, in a space that is more a home than a museum. The doors were opened to new creative realities, thanks to a gamble of responsibility towards a creative anxiety that increasingly needs to find a direction.
Exceptional guests in 2010 included big names on the Italian art scene: Enzo Cucchi, the painter with whom Testori carried out important projects in the last years of his life in Modena, Milan and Vienna; Alessandro Mendini, architect and multi-faceted artist, who recently returned to direct Domus; Gianni Dessì, one of the leading exponents of the “New Roman School”. A room was also dedicated to the Milanese artist Pippa Bacca, who tragically died in Turkey in March 2008 during her travelling performance Spose in viaggio.
The following artists have participated, many with site-specific works: Turi Simeti, Yi Zhou, Julia Krahn, Umberto Chiodi, Diamante Faraldo, Elena Monzo, Armin Linke, Giovanni Vitali, Alessandro Verdi, J&Peg, Youssef Nabil, Emanuele Dottori, Arianna Scommegna, Michael S. Lee, Mario Dellavedova, Rossella Roli, Andrea Mastrovito, Davide Nido. Sculptures by Sergio Fermariellowere placed in the Garden.
The exhibition was promoted and organised by the Associazione Giovanni Testori Onlus, in collaboration with Casa Testori Associazione Culturale, which makes Testori’s much-loved home a meeting place and cultural centre a few kilometres from Milan in the centre of Novate Milanese.