Secondo Leopardi

Secondo Leopardi. Dalla poesia all’arte contemporanea
Curated by Alessandro Castiglioni

15 November – 8 December 2026
On the occasion of Duemilalibri 2026

The exhibition stems from a series of works dedicated to Giacomo Leopardi from the museum’s collection. This collection, never before displayed in its entirety at MA*GA, originated in 1998, when, to mark the bicentenary of the birth of the poet from Recanati, Gino Gini curated an exhibition inviting some of Italy’s leading visual poets to create works specifically dedicated to him. Entitled Pagine e Pagine. 1798 / 1998 omaggio a Giacomo Leopardi, the exhibition is now revisited from an expanded contemporary perspective, encompassing diverse artistic practices and movements associated with visual poetry. The museum presents a selection of works dedicated to Leopardi by Tomaso Binga, Mirella Bentivoglio, Lamberto Pignotti, Arrigo Lora Totino, Luciano Caruso, William Xerra and Irma Blank.

The exhibition is organised into four sections that offer complementary perspectives on the positions and approaches of its various protagonists. The first section is dedicated to the women artists who exhibited in the celebrated Materializzazione del Linguaggio, curated by Mirella Bentivoglio for the 38th Venice Biennale in 1978. This is followed by an in-depth exploration of the work of Gino Gini and Fernanda Fedi, the key figures behind the project presented at the Civica Galleria di Gallarate in 1998.

The exhibition concludes with two sections: one focusing more broadly on the visual poets of Gruppo 70, and another featuring artists whose engagement with Leopardi extends beyond visual poetry, including Lucia Pescador, Roberto Sanesi and Mariuccia Secol.