Art Drive-in by Peter Halley in Brescia

Accessible to all without getting out of the car, the underground contemporary art path of the Generali garage in Brescia is enriched with a super colorful intervention by Peter Halley

The art accessible to all, usable directly (and, why not, convenient). Art intertwined with everyday life, camouflaged in the city. Art that is open and public, dynamic, shared and connected with the territory (underground), outside the usual (reserved) spaces. The art ‘wearing’.

How? With a Art Drive-in in continuous evolution and transformation. An imaginative but absolutely real journey, between artistic installations and murals in a garage which can be accessed exclusively by car. This idea - which became very concrete thanks to a creative and effective synergy - launched in Brescia more than a year ago, in full pandemic, and now the project is being implemented (and colored).

How has our relationship with art changed in times of pandemics? Among the many answers, one is surely that we have learned that the direct relationship with the artwork is and remains irreplaceable , not reproducible through the mediation of a screen.

And if in times of pandemic restrictions going to museums and galleries we have found out how complicated it can be, in Brescia the Associazione Bellearti, chaired by the gallery owner Massimo Minini who brings together – in a tangible synergy – about twenty operators and art enthusiasts, felt the urgency to bring contemporary art directly in the life of the city, creating moments and spaces of almost casual encounter with the works of some of the most significant artists of our time.

After the inauguration last year, from 1 October 2021 the project Art Drive-in, Generali: Underground path of contemporary art is enriched with a new permanent intervention: with the collaboration of the students of Academy of Fine Arts of Brescia SantaGiulia, the American artist Peter Halley created Columns in 10 Colors, a large installation site specific environment that dresses in fluorescent colors the spaces of the garage of the Agenzia Generali di Brescia Castello in via Pusterla 45.

Thus begins a new path that will lead in the next few years to the birth of the Pinacoteca Drive-in: an absolute novelty in the panorama of the arts, where similar experiences have already been experienced that here however they evolve towards the birth of a real art gallery, a 'museum' unconventional, dynamic, accessible to all and can be visited without getting out of your car , which from year to year will be enriched with new works and interventions that will implement the 'collection', consisting of works created on walls and columns by many Italian and international artists including Ludovica Anversa, Stefano Arienti, Olivo Barbieri, Thomas Braida, Linda Carrara, Ambra Castagnetti, Enrico De Paris, Giovanni Gastel, Osamu Kobayashi, Davide Mancini Zanchi, Antonio Marras, Muna Mussie, Ozmo, Mimmo Paladino, Gabriele Picco, Antonio Riello, Leonardo Anker Vandal.

The installation, curated by Bellearti, is the latest in a series of interventions in the city and territory of Brescia , Italian Capital of Culture 2023 with Bergamo. In addition to the two large structures of Jorrit Tornquist and Rasheed Araeen which this year became part of the Generali Brescia Castello collection, La Plage of Pascale Marthine Tayou: an expanse of hundreds of colorful beach umbrellas planted between the rows of Vigneto Pusterla, the largest urban vineyard in Europe, visible until 21 October.

“The whole world” explains Pascale Marthine Tayou “for more than a year has been carrying a mysterious and sinister torture, an invisible drama that spares no one, of which Brescia has become a symbol. A flowering of umbrellas planted in the vineyard, like a color dream, invites us to the table of happiness. Project and symbol of rebirth : the memory I hope to keep forever of Italy, almost a pixel in the gigantic photograph of my Italian-style joie de vivre”.

Il percorso intrapreso dall’Associazione Bellearti vuole fare dell’arte contemporanea un momento di condivisione pubblica in forte connessione con il territorio che la ospita. Interventi come questo di Halley o come l’installazione di Tayou si propongono come un segnale di apertura, di alfabetizzazione artistica al di là di ogni logica commerciale, nella convinzione che l’arte porti con sé un valore assoluto, anche quando è mimetizzata nelle città e nella loro vita quotidiana.

The Academy of Fine Arts of Brescia SantaGiulia is an university for creative talents entirely dedicated to art, research and technology that enhances students' talents by linking traditional artistic skills to the development of new digital technologies and constantly promoting professional training opportunities.

Coordinated by prof. Marco La Rosa, the students involved in the project are: for the Contemporary Visual Arts course (two years): Valery Franzelli, Stefano Riboli, Avitha Panazzi, Arianna Greci, Ester Faustini, Anna Cancarini, Martina Oldani; for the second year of Painting (three years): Carlotta Bontempi, Veronica Sbardellati, Elisa Benini; for the Artistic Decoration course (two years): Laura Sangalli, Malina Lucaci, Davide Foresti, Samuele Rongoni.