The universal language of Marcello Morandini

On 2 October a Varese the headquarters of the Marcello Morandini Foundation. Established in 2016 with the aim of creating a museum dedicated to the artist's works, the Foundation also aims to promote knowledge of the so-called Exact art, as theorized by the critic Marco Meneguzzo, which includes in itself theconcrete art, Kinetics, Scheduled and Optical.

The seat is one liberty villa of the early twentieth century which was restored over the course of four years of work thanks to the generous donation of two American collectors and transformed into a museum space of over 930 square meters divided over four floors plus a large 3,300 square meter park with ancient trees and exotic plants. 

The first floor houses a space for children's workshops, a conference room and a multiples exhibition. The second floor is intended for temporary international exhibitions, mainly focused on Concrete and Constructivist Art; the third floor houses a permanent collection of Morandi's works and a concert hall while the fourth floor houses the artist's studio, the offices and the archives of the Foundation. 

An installation by the artist entitled A love story: white rings of various sizes made of boxed metal and powder coated, surrounding the tree trunks.

Born in Mantua in 1940, but adopted by Varese, the artistic career of Marcello Morandini began in the early 1960s and has as reference points Bruno Munari and Franco Crignani. 

After the Brera School of Art, starts working in the graphic studio of Angelo Franzoni where is it Paolo Scheggi and Getulio Alviani notice his early works.

From 1964 he began to exhibit in various galleries until he landed in 1968 at the Venice Biennale. It was the year of great protests in which his colleagues participated in varying degrees, from Novelli turning his paintings towards the wall to Vedova leading the parades with the students. Morandini, who along with Gianni Colombo, was the youngest of the participants and opposed to any kind of violence, continued to set up and declare himself extraneous to that climate of conflicts and tensions and at the end of the Biennale decided to leave Italy.

Thus began a period of successful international artistic collaborations that took him from Switzerland and Germany to Japan and Malaysia.

This long and passionate search for beauty through the simplicity of geometric language finally brought him back to Italy and found its full expression in the halls of the Foundation, conceived not only as a museum but also as a new space for the city, open to all. accessible and inclusive.