Gino Gianuizzi: No Neon No Cry

“In 1981, Neon appeared on the Bologna art scene without a predetermined program, proposing itself as a laboratory of ideas, available to artists and curators who wanted to engage and develop new paths. The history of Neon in Bologna: conceived as a consequence of Settantasette, a “spazio di utopia nato quando le utopie rivoluzionarie si scioglievano” (space of utopia born when revolutionary utopias dissolved) Neon was born from Gino Gianuizzi’s intuition, taking shape as an original and unconventional experience.”

In thirty years of activity, operational until 2011, the Neon Bologna space – run on Via Solferino by Gianuizzi along with Francesca Alinovi first, and Roberto Daolio later – has gathered and fostered the development of artistic experiences and experiments. In 2022, MAMbo dedicated an exhibition to it, which led to the 2023 publication of the volume NO, NEON, NO CRY.

Text by Livia Montagnoli, for which we thank her, published on https://www.artribune.com/

Gino Gianuizzi
In 1981, he co-founded Neon, one of the first independent spaces in Italy. Neon’s work has spanned three decades of cultural life not only in the city of Bologna, but throughout the entire region and the country. The Neon cultural association is an independent organization that supports and promotes contemporary artistic research, with a particular focus on the work of emerging generations. Founded in 1981 in Bologna as an artist’s space, in 1988 it established itself as an exhibition space, establishing itself over the years as an independent experimental platform where artists, critics, and curators interact. This has enabled it to generate an information network aimed at both specialist audiences and those outside the art system. Neon is not an art gallery, nor has it established a permanent roster of artists: sometimes it’s simply a place of passage, stimulating and useful to include on a CV; more often, it’s more of a transition, and in these cases, the time spent together is longer, people get along well, exchange ideas, and develop projects. In some cases, when the connection is strongest, neon becomes a space for sharing. After the experience of Enfatismo and the collaboration with Francesca Alinovi, starting in 1988 neon takes on the character of an exhibition space and devotes its attention to the promotion of new generations of artists, favoring research free from market constraints. During this phase, neon promotes the debuts of Maurizio Vetrugno, Maurizio Cattelan, Luca Vitone, Eva Marisaldi, Cesare Viel, Francesco Bernardi, Tommaso Tozzi, Alessandro Pessoli, Cuoghi Corsello, Marco Samoré, Alberto Zanazzo, Emilio Fantin, Giancarlo Norese, Mala, Formento and Sossella, Patrizia Giambi, M+M, Alessandra Tesi, Maurizio Bolognini, Italo Zuffi, Maurizio Mercuri, Dörte Meyer, Marcello Maloberti, Silvia Cini, Francesco Gennari, Massimo Uberti, and Sergia Avveduti.

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