Art in the bus station

For three days, the independent contemporary art fair SetUp turned 1,600 square metres of the city's Autostazione into a key place of encounter and artistic ferment, promoting stimulating projects by artists under 35.

Bologna's railway station is a fast interchange, a place of trajectories and tangents that has little impact on travellers arriving from Milan, Genoa and Venice or those en route from Naples, Rome and Florence. It is a gateway to somewhere else. Few realise that a mimesis of this model of speed and frenzy stands just a stone's throw from the central train station. Another place of arrival and departure, it offers a smaller representation of the States of Mind, not those painted by Boccioni, but those designed by architects Luigi Vignali and Luigi Riguzzi in 1967. It is the large Bus Station (Autostazione) at one end of Via dell'Indipendenza, opposite the Montagnola Park, home to the city's famous market. A long, low building — worn down by the passing gaze of those heading through it every day to the elegant bus shelter to await the sleepy, old, juggernaut buses and coaches leaving for around the world — with a little functional plaza, in the 1970s the Autostazione was considered a fine structure and an excellent model for the transport system.

Never upgraded however, this secondary gateway to Bologna became rundown over the years, deliberately omitted from city narratives and even abandoned by the local newspaper Il Domani, which had its offices there. Prematurely and badly aged, to many and in different ways it is now the epitome of the poor infrastructure. Yet, someone managed to look past its dusty facade and gambled on the possibility of turning this grey box into a key place of encounter and artistic ferment in the city for three busy days — to the point of competing tongue-in-cheek with that great carnival that is the ArteFiera contemporary art fair.

Top: Bologna's via dell'Indipendenza bus station, where the SetUp art fair took place. Above: The entrance to the bus station was marked by a few orange balloons

Simona Gavioli, Marco Aion Mangani and Alice Zannoni are the three minds behind SetUp, an independent contemporary art fair held in the 1600 square metres of the Bologna Autostazione's first floor, lain empty for a year. From 25 to 27 January (and with a mega-opening party on the evening of 24), this building's anonymous face was transformed into a colourful box hosting 25 exhibitors in a curatorial project aimed at stimulating projects by artists under 35. The curators and the artists, presented by galleries and chosen by a selection committee (composed of Antonio Arévalo, Martina Cavallarin, Valerio Dehò, Viviana Siviero, Eugenio Viola), all saw the light of day after 1977. As Simona Gavioli explains, "SetUp was born out of a need, out of necessity. Its name means 'laying the basis for change' and highlights the organisers' main objective, to renew the art system by proposing an innovative format centred on young people. A project that stretches art's horizons, adding a cultural dimension to the standard trade-fair context via close collaboration among artists, curator-critics and gallery owners. Yes, it is a commercial opportunity but also and primarily a cultural stimulus that will generate flows and synergies for the future." The results of this first event suggest that the gamble has paid off. The three-day visitor flow came close to 8,000 (tickets cost just 3,50€), with many new collectors showing an interest in emerging artists, as demonstrated by the considerable amount of bargaining witnessed.

Alessandro Brighetti, <em>Fertility</em>, Galleria OltreDimore — Alessandro Brighetti, *Fertility*, Galleria OltreDimore

Another important signal was given by the presence of three artists described as "champions" who presented their works in the shared spaces: Alessandro Bergonzoni, with an interesting installation on prisons; Gino Sabatini Odoardi, who produced a number of "sculptural" canvases; and Svetlana Ostapovici, featured in the press area. These three works were intentionally site specific, to highlight the crucial link between fast art processes and the apparent rigidity of a place that would not have been rediscovered if not for this type of project. This "young" initiative received added resonance when Piero Santi, host of a popular radio programme called Humus, broadcast the opening events live for two hours, along with artist Annalisa Cattani and critic and curator Massimo Marchetti. Surrounded by the stiff and somewhat mummified structure of the official fair weekend, the backstage atmosphere experienced at the Autostazione generated an instant sense of renewal in what is the faded cultural framework of Bologna, which is, to some degree, a reflection of that of all Italy.

SetUp forced a public accustomed to attributing places with a value based on their primary use to rethink the role of a space, slightly but effectively altering everyone's perception of this part of the city

Left, Gino Sabatini Odoardi installing his work. Right, Giuseppe Stampone, <em>Flipper</em> — Left, Gino Sabatini Odoardi installing his work. Right, Giuseppe Stampone, *Flipper*

Landing like astronauts in the small galaxy of Bologna only to be immediately catapulted inside a space that is more like an early-1990s' Berlin or the new Palais de Tokyo in Paris — an evolutionary archaeological operation by Lacaton & Vassal — is no common experience. SetUp forced a public accustomed to attributing places with a value based on their primary use to rethink the role of a space, slightly but effectively altering everyone's perception of this part of the city. We should reflect on the importance of a temporary effort — the power of impermanence — and on the indispensable link between cultural experience and the market. In fact, it is no coincidence that the event that managed to breathe fresh life into this lacklustre concrete infrastructure was a fair that offered an alternative in size and location to the far better known Artefiera. It is our hope that SetUp may spread like "good bacteria" to many other cities and eat into the prejudices we so often project onto places. Elisa Poli

Left, final stage of the performance review. Right, the <em>In Corpo 3 Ginnastica della visione</em> performance — Left, final stage of the performance review. Right, the *In Corpo 3 Ginnastica della visione* performance

Lorenzo Perrone, <em>Il vento è cambiato</em>, ["The wind has changed"], Galleria Arte a Colori di Francesca Sensi — Lorenzo Perrone, *Il vento è cambiato*, ["The wind has changed"], Galleria Arte a Colori di Francesca Sensi

Left, installation view at the SetUp art fair. Right, a performance by Ekodanza

Left, panel discussion with The On Group Switch. Right, aspect of the fair

Art in the bus station

For three days, the independent contemporary art fair SetUp turned 1,600 square metres of the city's Autostazione into a key place of encounter and artistic ferment, promoting stimulating projects by artists under 35.

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