Facile Ironia

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, MAMbo presents “Facile Ironia: Irony in Italian Art from the 20th to the 21st Century”, curated by Lorenzo Balbi and Caterina Molteni. Held in the Sala delle Ciminiere, the exhibition features over 100 works and archival documents by more than 70 artists, spanning 70 years of Italian art—from the 1950s to today—through the lens of irony.
The exhibition title, “Facile Ironia”, plays on the apparent simplicity of irony while revealing its deeper complexity. This contradiction becomes a game, inviting the audience to reflect on language, common assumptions, and how they shape our perception of the world.

The imaginative irony of Bruno Munari, the irreverence of Piero Manzoni, and the paradoxical visions of Gino De Dominicis. Piero Gilardi and Michelangelo Pistoletto intertwine irony with politics, while Tomaso Binga and Mirella Bentivoglio challenge female stereotypes. Adriano Spatola and Giulia Niccolai explore linguistic experimentation and nonsense. Maurizio Cattelan, Paola Pivi, and Francesco Vezzoli use irony to expose the contradictions of the present, while Chiara Fumai and Italo Zuffi reveal the unspoken rules of the art system. The duo Eva & Franco Mattes draw from internet memes to highlight the humour shaping today’s digital culture.
Since antiquity, irony has been “the art of asking questions”, as seen in Socratic dialogue—a unique tool for exposing contradictions in reality. Through humour, parody, and wit, irony becomes both an antidote and an insightful alternative for confronting life’s challenges.
Across generations, Italian artists have embraced an anti-tragic aesthetic, engaging with the “cosmic joke” of reality. The exhibition unfolds through thematic sections that explore irony’s many dimensions: paradox, play, feminist critique of patriarchy and Italian society, political mobilisation, institutional critique, nonsense, and dark humour.