Gallarate: three new exhibitions at the Maga, from Jago to Leopardi

Context

TL;DR

• Starting November 15, 2026, MA*GA opens its new season
• “Jago. Exposed Bodies” from November 15, 2026 to April 4, 2027
• “Water” at Palazzo Lombardia from November 11, 2026
• “According to Leopardi” until December 8, 2026

Key facts

• Place → MA*GA Museum of Gallarate
• Central exhibition → «Jago. Bodies exposed"
• Curator → Tommaso Zijno
• Reorganization → «The museum of currents»
• Third project → «Secondo Leopardi. From poetry to contemporary art"
• Festival → Duemilalibri
• Installation in Milan → «Water»
• Tickets → TicketOne and MA*GA ticket office

Three projects for the season

On November 15, 2026, the MA*GA Museum in Gallarate opens a new exhibition season divided into three projects. The programming explores, through different approaches, the corporeal dimension, the social function of the museum institution and the link between literature and visual arts.

At the center is «Jago. Exposed bodies», exhibition curated by Tommaso Zijno and dedicated to the work of the sculptor Jago. The project puts his works in dialogue with those of Adolfo Wildt, Emilio Vedova, Salvatore Scarpitta and Marinella Pirelli. The exhibition will be accompanied by the rearrangement of the museum's collections through «The museum of currents», curated by Emma Zanella and Alessandro Castiglioni.

The third proposal is «According to Leopardi. From poetry to contemporary art", included in the program of Duemilalibri, the book and author festival of Gallarate. The exhibition brings back to MA*GA a nucleus of works linked to the relationship between the poetry of Giacomo Leopardi and the visual arts, with a contemporary reading of visual poetry.

The program therefore distributes the three initiatives between contemporary art, twentieth-century history and new interpretations of the museum's heritage. «Iago. Exposed bodies" and "The museum of currents" are scheduled from 15 November 2026 to 4 April 2027, while "Secondo Leopardi" is scheduled from 15 November to 8 December 2026.

The proposal does not end in the spaces of Gallarate. The project dedicated to Jago also includes a second intervention in Milan, at Palazzo Lombardia, where the installation «Water» will be presented. The two exhibitions are autonomous, but build a journey between Milan and Gallarate around the artist's research.

Tickets can be purchased in advance on TicketOne and at the MA*GA ticket office. The museum thus presents a season built on three different readings, united by the desire to connect contemporary works, memory of the twentieth century and the heritage of the collection.

Operational details

The body as surface and conflict

The project “Jago. Exposed Bodies” begins with a comparison between Jago’s practice and that of four artists belonging to different periods and artistic languages. Jago, born in 1987, is placed alongside Adolfo Wildt, Emilio Vedova, Salvatore Scarpitta and Marinella Pirelli to construct a dialogue spanning more than a century of artistic research.

The exhibition is organized around two themes. The first is stripping away, understood as a gesture capable of revealing what lies beneath the surface. The second concerns war, presented as an extreme situation in which the body becomes a battleground. The itinerary therefore uses the human figure to address questions related to matter, violence and collective responsibility.

The resonances among the works connect Jago’s practice to Vedova’s gestural energy, Scarpitta’s material approach and Pirelli’s reflections on the political body. The comparison with Wildt takes on particular significance: like Jago, the sculptor used marble to bring out fragility, spirituality and pain.

Tommaso Zijno’s curatorial approach thus presents a reading of the body not limited to its physical dimension. Through the works brought together at MA*GA, the body becomes a tool for reflecting on power, violence, mysticism and collective responsibility. The chronological distance between the artists does not eliminate the connections, but makes it possible to follow transformations and continuities in artistic research.

A collection read through currents

“The Museum of Currents” instead stems from work on the historical archive of the Civic Gallery of Modern Art of Gallarate and from an analysis of the museographic concepts formulated by Silvio Zanella, the museum’s founder, between 1972 and 2000. The project is part of the activities of the Italia 2050 Research Center, founded in 2023 by Museo MAGA and the Lombardy Region.

Zanella envisioned a museum capable of telling the story not only of the development of artistic languages, but also of humanity, society and civilization in every era through those languages. The new installation takes up and updates this vision, abandoning a linear reading of art history in favor of a journey made up of returns, ruptures, accelerations and transformations.

There will also be a focus on research investigating the links between art, nature and ecology. The collection will thus be presented as an interweaving of currents and transitions, reinterpreted through relationships that go beyond chronological order alone.

Key points

Leopardi between words and images

«According to Leopardi. From poetry to contemporary art» completes the MA*GA program with an exhibition scheduled from November 15 to December 8, 2026, as part of Duemilalibri, Gallarate's book and author festival.

The project begins with a body of works that became part of the MA*GA collection following «Pages and Pages. 1798 / 1998 tribute to Giacomo Leopardi». In 1998, Gino Gini conceived the exhibition to mark the bicentenary of the birth of the poet from Recanati. That body is now being presented again through a contemporary interpretation that brings together visual poetry and artistic practices.

Among the artists featured in the exhibition are Tomaso Binga, Mirella Bentivoglio and Lamberto Pignotti. The relationship with Leopardi is therefore explored not only through literature, but also through works that engage with the visual dimension of the word and the possibilities of the image. The exhibition connects the museum's holdings with a contemporary reinterpretation of the poet from Recanati.

The itinerary between Gallarate and Milan

The program dedicated to Jago also extends to Palazzo Lombardia. From November 11, 2026, to January 10, 2027, the Milan venue will host «Water», an installation that juxtaposes the solidity of matter with the flow of time.

The Milan project and the Gallarate exhibition remain independent, but are presented as parts of a shared itinerary centered on the artist's research. The link between the two venues adds a second stop dedicated to Jago to the MA*GA season, distinct from the comparison between his works and those of Wildt, Vedova, Scarpitta and Pirelli.

The dates make it possible to follow a varied program. On November 15, 2026, «Jago. Bodies on display», «The museum of currents» and «According to Leopardi» will open in Gallarate, while Palazzo Lombardia will already have opened the «Water» project on November 11, 2026. The exhibition dedicated to Leopardi will end on December 8, 2026; the other two MA*GA initiatives will continue until April 4, 2027, and the Milan installation until January 10, 2027.

For access to the exhibitions, tickets can be purchased in advance on TicketOne and at the MA*GA ticket office. The museum thus rounds out the season with a program spread across Gallarate and Milan, keeping the individual projects distinct while connecting them through the themes of the body, the collection, and the relationship between poetry and the visual arts.

Source: varesenews.it