Pirelli HangarBicocca is a non-profit foundation, established in 2004, which has converted a former industrial plant in Milan into an institution for producing and promoting contemporary art. This dynamic center for experimentation and discovery covers 15,000 square meters, making it one of the largest contiguous exhibition spaces in Europe. It presents major solo shows every year by Italian and international artists, with each project conceived to work in close relation to the architecture of the complex, and explored in depth through a calendar of parallel events. Admission to the space and the shows is completely free of charge, and facilitators are on hand to help the public connect with the art. Since 2013, Vicente Todolí has been the foundation’s Artistic Director. The complex, which once housed a locomotive factory, includes an area for public services and educational activities, and three exhibition spaces whose original twentieth-century architectural features have been left clearly visible: Shed, Navate, and Cubo. As well as its exhibitions program and cultural events, Pirelli HangarBicocca also permanently houses one of Anselm Kiefer’s most important site-specific works, The Seven Heavenly Palaces 2004-2015, commissioned for the opening of Pirelli HangarBicocca. The history of Pirelli HangarBicocca is closely linked to that of Breda, a company incorporated in 1886 by Ingegner Ernesto Breda, who moved it to the Bicocca district from 1903. Pirelli, Falck and Marelli followed suit with their own companies, thus turning the area into one of the most important industrial centres in Italy. In the new 200,000m² factory, Breda mainly manufactured railway carriages, electric and steam locomotives, boilers, farm machinery and equipment and, during the First World War, aeroplanes, projectiles and other products for the war effort. One of these factory buildings was Pirelli HangarBicocca, which at the time was divided into blocks of different types, origin and size. The “Shed“, for example, a typical low bare-brick factory building with double-pitched roof and large skylights, is already quite recognisable in photos dating from the first half of the 1920s. It was here that components for locomotives and farm machinery were manufactured. In 1955 Breda Elettromeccanica e Locomotive enlarged its premises with the addition of a cubic barrel-vaulted building which is now the Cubo exhibition space of Pirelli HangarBicocca. The huge building that joins the Shed and the Cubo, which is today called “Le Navate”, was constructed between 1963 and 1965 for the transformers department. It was here that high-powered machines were assembled and tested. The building, which has retained its original dimensions – 9500 m² with a height of about 30 metres – consists of a “nave” and two aisles. Since 2004, one of these has been home to The Seven Heavenly Palaces by the German artist Anselm Kiefer. Storage facilities and sheds were demolished in about 2000 to create the garden where Fausto Melotti’s La Sequenza has been since 2010. In the early 1980s, Breda was taken over by the Ansaldo Group and, almost at the same time, the historic industrial areas gradually began to be decommissioned. The Bicocca district then underwent an almost total urban redevelopment. The Bicocca Project, which was launched in 1986, led to the creation of university buildings, administration centres and private housing around the Teatro degli Arcimboldi, as well as to the redevelopment of the old Pirelli factory buildings. After a decade of neglect, Pirelli HangarBicocca (formerly known as Ansaldo 17) was purchased by Prelios, the former Pirelli RE, which in 2004 decided to turn it into an exhibition space for contemporary art.

Gió Marconi gallery started in 1990 under the initiative of Gió Marconi who created the Studio Marconi 17, an experimental space for young artists and art critics that he ran from 1986 to 1990. At the beginning, the new gallery was directed by Gió and his father Giorgio, who had founded the Studio Marconi (1965-1992); now, Gió Marconi gallery mainly focuses on contemporary positions while it also continues to include historical artists of the Studio Marconi into its programme. Gió Marconi is interested in the works of the European and international avant-garde, showing artists such as Franz Ackermann, Trisha Baga, John Bock, Kerstin Brätsch, Matthew Brannon, André Butzer, Alex Da Corte, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Simon Fujiwara, Wade Guyton, Allison Katz, Annette Kelm, Sharon Lockhart, Michel Majerus, Oliver Osborne, Jorge Pardo, Tobias Rehberger, Markus Schinwald, Dasha Shishkin, Catherine Sullivan, Grazia Toderi, Fredrik Vaerslev, Atelier Van Lieshout, Francesco Vezzoli, Amelie von Wulffen. From 1965 until now, exhibitions by the following artists have been realized by the Studio Marconi and Gió Marconi gallery: Valerio Adami, Enrico Baj, Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Peter Blake, Alighiero Boetti, Alberto Burri, Alexander Calder, Anthony Caro, Enrico Castellani, Patrick Caulfield, Mario Ceroli, Marc Chagall, Christo, James Coleman, Gianni Colombo, Willem de Kooning, Sonia Delaunay, Lucio Del Pezzo, Antonio Dias, Bruno Di Bello, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Sam Francis, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Hsiao Chin, Anselm Kiefer, Martin Kippenberger, Franz Kline, Lee U Fan, Man Ray, Giuseppe Maraniello, Joan Mirò, Maurizio Mochetti, Aldo Mondino, Francois Morellet, Keizo Moroshita, Ugo Mulas, Louise Nevelson, Helmut Newton, Gastone Novelli, Giulio Paolini, Gianfranco Pardi, H.P.Paris, A.R.Penck, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Mimmo Rotella, Mario Schifano, Daniel Spoerri, Aldo Spoldi, Emilio Tadini, Antoni Tapies, Herve Telemaque, Joe Tilson, Giuseppe Uncini, Emilio Vedova, Tom Wesselman, William T. Wiley, Christopher Wool.

Tiny traditional restaurant with no reservations. Delicious traditional Milanese food, all cooked in their tiny kitchen. Always a queue so arrive early!

An architectural gem: immersed in an ample private garden with a swimming pool and a tennis court and set in the center of Milan, the Necchi Campiglio Villa was completed by the architect Piero Portaluppi in 1935. Commissioning the structure was the Necchi Campiglio family, part of the rich and elegant industrial middle class of Milan in the 1930s. The disposition of the interior spaces corresponds to the traditional layout of noble homes: the daytime areas on the ground floor, the bedrooms on the first floor, the service rooms in the areas under the roof, and the den as well as the changing rooms and the bathrooms for the pool in the basement. The Necchi Campiglio family wanted above all to distance themselves from the traditions of their day, and planned ample areas dedicated to the reception of guests and to the social whirl: the dining room, the smoking room, the library and the grand salon. Right after WWII, areas of the villa underwent changes effected by the architect Tomaso Buzzi, who sweetened the linearity of Portaluppi’s style, and inserted aspects inspired of the 18th century, especially those in the style of Louis the 15th of France.

Wine bar serving a great selection of wines by the glass and bottle, alongside a selection of small plates. Lovely interior and friendly staff. Booking suggested.