Pirelli Hangar Bicocca is a site for contemporary art exhibitions, located in the Bicocca district of Milan, Italy. The building used to be a Pirelli factory. It was converted into 10,900 square metres of exhibition galleries in 2012.[1]
HangarBicocca, set up in 2004, officially became a foundation in 2008 after a process of restoration of the former factory premises.[4] Its external appearance recalls what was once its main function, i.e. the headquarters of one of the most important companies in Lombardy's engineering sector: the Ansaldo Group, founded in 1886 by engineer Ernesto Breda from Padua, who contributed to the development of the railway network in Northern Italy through the production of railway carriages, steam and electric locomotives.[5]
On the outside, the building has retained the industrial character of the company to which it belonged. The original rough concrete floors and high ceilings typical of the industrial style of the time have been preserved: in the room containing Anselm Kiefer's permanent installation The Seven Heavenly Palaces, traces of the rails used to test locomotives are still visible.[6] This enormous exhibition space covering almost 15,000 square metres is divided into three main areas: the Cube, the Shed and the Navate.
In order of access to the exhibition spaces, the three main covers are described below.
While maintaining the original inductive character of the typical industrial building of the 1920s, made of exposed brick, low height, with double-pitched roofs and large skylights, components for locomotives and agricultural machinery were produced here.[7]
This is the biggest area of the foundation and it is 30-meter-high building that permanently accommodates the sculptural installation The Seven Heavenly Palaces by Anselm Kiefer.[8]
The cube is a barrel-vaulted cubic body characterised by the fact that, as opposed to the other exhibition spaces in the complex, it enjoys natural lighting as it was used to test electric turbines.[5]
^MiBAC, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (2012). I luoghi del contemporaneo - The Places of Contemporary Art 2012. Gangemi Editore. p. 48. ISBN9788849224108.
^ abEmanuele Gabardi, Vittoria Morganti (2015). MUSEI DI MILANO. Lo spettacolo della cultura e della bellezza al tempo di Expo. FrancoAngeli. ISBN9788891725967.
