After nine months the MA*GA reopens: “A result wanted by everyone”

 These months haven’t been easy for the MA*GA museum of Gallarate. After the fire of 14 February and the closing to the public we have had to work without a location. The activities haven’t stopped, finding hospitality in different places to go on offering to the public the didactic work services, the training and the exposition. Next Saturday the museum reopens in part and the director Emma Zanella explains how the museum starts up again.

On 23 November the MA*GA reopens after the fire, which space will be given back to the public?
We succeeded in reopening to the public a whole wing of the museum, the one that wasn’t affected directly by the flames, but by the water, the smoke and the consequences post-fire. The works of recovery and renovation of the structures were followed by the municipality of Gallarate, directly by the mayor Edoardo Guenzani and the architect Marta Cundari, the only person in charge for the procedure for the MA*GA post-fire.

All the activities restart with the usual pace, exposition, educational and also meetings. All will be organized in the entry zone, the one of new construction.

How are the recovery works proceeding in the most damaged zones? Are there some guesses on the reopening?
To this question the mayor and the municipal administration should answer firstly, being the people concerned with the recovery and restoration works as owners of the building. However, we hope that the whole museum will reopen by the end of 2014.

Which were the main problems in these months for the museum?
They were a lot and of every kind: from the conservation and restoration of the damaged artworks, to the relations with the institution involved (Superintendence, Fire Department, Magistrature, Region, Cariplo Foundation, …), from the recovery works to the cultural “endurance” of the institution, from the establishment of a “widespread museum” and operative, to the establishment of a solidarity network solid and efficient. Anyway, we are pleased with the responses, generous and able to instil trust at MA*GA.

With which events it reopens?
We reopen with an unusual exposition but very important. Its title is inspired by a famous song of the Beatles: With a little Help from My Friends. Artists for the MA*GA, promoted by MAGA and by the authority that creates the museum, the Premio Gallarate. Many artists in these months have rallied around the institution showing their participation and their solidarity through the gift of one of their artwork, that can be used as tool for the fund-raising for the reconstruction, material and moral of the museum. So it was born the idea to exchange this gift through an out-and-out exposition, able to be accountable to the work of these months, of the relations with the artists, of the invite that the award is giving to the collectors, to buy an artwork during the exposition. The transfer is managed by the Premio Gallarate, not by the Zanella Foundation. The funds will be given for the needs of the museum.

The exhibition itinerary opens with the artwork of two great artists tied in some way to the Museo Silvio Zanella, the founder and Ottavio Missoni, who has  given an artwork

What does the exposition consist in?
The exposition shows around 200 works of 170 artists, national and of our area. It will be a chance to pull together researches and languages very different to each other, to meet artists who have already  been at GAM and now at MA*GA. The works have been prepared paying attention especially to the single languages and the assonance between them, in correspondence to the stand (in the picture some moment of the preparation).

The permanent collection has been hosted at first in Triennale and now at Villa Reale in Monza, those kinds of collaboration will go on after the reopening of the museum, too?
Yes, we go on with those collaborations, significant to us and the authority which hosts us. We are arranging an important program for the collection and also for next cultural collaborations, even international. The next expositive appointment that will have as protagonist the artworks of MA*GA, are planned for the second half of 2014.

What are your future plans?
Demanding programs that see MA*GA at first line of Officina Contemporanea, urban cultural network, financed by the Cariplo Foundation with ten other partners of the project, such as the municipality of Gallarate; and also partners of important expositive project at a European level, for 2014 and 2015.

In a moment so important for the museum what is the thing that you appreciated the most? And the most unpleasant?
The most important experience has been the participation of everybody through the museum, the attention and the solidarity. First among everyone the municipality of Gallarate that has lead the recovery and will lead the renovation. The authorities Triennale and Reggia of Monza that immediately have greeted the collection; the signatory of the call sponsor from Premio Gallarate and, obviously, the promoter of Premio Gallarate, ready to support us in every moment. I don’t forget the employees of the Foundation subject to a big stress due to the fire, the temporary solutions, the cutting of funds, the uncertainty of work that, in any case, have been at first line.
I don’t remember unpleasant experiences, and it’s better like this.