Every year, Collezione Ramo presents Milano Drawing Week, an event organised in collaboration with and under the patronage of the City of Milan – Department of Culture, now in its fifth edition.
Conceived as a constellation of exhibitions spread across Milan, the event was established with the aim of promoting drawing by fostering a dialogue between modern and contemporary art. It is rooted in the belief that art history cannot be separated from this practice, and that works on paper represent the medium through which artists’ ideas take shape in their most spontaneous form.
The project invites Collezione Ramo to open itself up to the city by making a selection of works on paper by twentieth-century Italian artists available to cultural institutions and art galleries. Artists from different backgrounds and generations whose practices involve drawing are invited to select a work from this group of pieces belonging to Collezione Ramo and place it in dialogue with their own artistic research within one of the participating venues.
The aim is to establish a dialogue between the Collection’s significant historical and artistic heritage and the ideas and concerns that inform contemporary artistic practices. At the same time, the initiative offers the public an opportunity to explore a medium that remains relatively underrepresented, yet is shared by creative practitioners across all disciplines and has the ability to communicate directly and immediately with audiences.
In addition, a programme of collateral events enriches the initiative, featuring public talks with internationally renowned curators and workshops led by artists and educators, exploring the infinite possibilities of works on paper.
To encourage the continued production of works on paper, the Milano Drawing Week Award, entirely supported by Gruppo Censeo, is also presented during the event. Awarded to one of the participating contemporary artists by a jury composed of architects and designers, the prize consists of an artist residency in London at Worlding Project.
By creating a network of public institutions, private galleries and independent organisations united by a shared commitment to promoting this still underappreciated medium, Milano Drawing Week aims to map drawing in all its facets and reach an increasingly broad audience.
As Irina Zucca Alessandrelli, curator of Collezione Ramo, explains:
“Milano Drawing Week is an annual opportunity to give drawing the importance it deserves. Drawing stimulates thought like nothing else, because the act of drawing is an act of discovery, while looking at the drawn mark allows us to rediscover the artist’s original idea in all its authenticity.”
To date, Milano Drawing Week has involved numerous exhibition venues (Castello Sforzesco, Casa degli Artisti, Cittadella degli Archivi, Museo di Storia Naturale, ArtNoble Gallery, APALAZZOGALLERY, Bonvini 1909, Cabinet Studiolo, Castiglioni, Ciaccia Levi, Clima, Ex Elettrofonica, Francesca Minini, Galera San Soda, Galleria Fumagalli, Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Galleria ZERO…, Gió Marconi, Gregor Staiger, kaufmann repetto, Loom Gallery, M77 Gallery, Martina Simeti, Mega, Nashira Gallery, OPR Gallery, Renata Fabbri, Schiavo-Zoppelli Gallery, Settantaventidue, Spazio Lima, Studio Guenzani, Szydlowski Gallery, Tiziana Di Caro, Triangolo, UNA Galleria, Vistamare) and a wide range of Italian and international artists, both past and present (Carla Accardi, Vincenzo Agnetti, Stefano Arienti, Enrico Baj, Giacomo Balla, Alexandra Barth, Gianfranco Baruchello, Marco Belfiore, Monia Ben Hamoudal, Mirella Bentivoglio, Riccardo Beretta, Thomas Berra, Tomaso Binga, Irma Blank, Umberto Boccioni, John Bock, Alighiero Boetti, Benni Bosetto, Sergio Breviario, Alberto Burri, Massimo Campigli, Costanza Candeloro, Carlo Carrà, Alik Cavaliere, Monster Chetwynd, Sandro Chia, Umberto Chiodi, Carlo Cossignani, Corydon Cowansage, Dadamaino, Giulia Dall’Olio, Betty Danon, Francesco De Bernardi, Giorgio de Chirico, Stefano de Paolis, Filippo de Pisis, Leonardo Devito, Luca Gioacchino Di Bernardo, Braco Dimitrijevic, Piero Dorazio, Slawomir Elsner, Luciano Fabro, Pietro Fachini, Vadim Fishkin, Lucio Fontana, Tom Friedman, Domenico Gnoli, Miss Goffetown, Renato Guttuso, Carlo and Fabio Ingrassia, Alex Katz, Juul Kraijer, Ugo La Pietra, Osvaldo Licini, Emi Ligabue, Mino Maccari, Mad Meg, Marco Andrea Magni, Marcello Maloberti, Piero Manzoni, Vijay Masharani, Fabio Mauri, Fausto Melotti, Mario Merz, Giorgio Morandi, Marco Pio Mucci, Valerio Nicolai, Alek O., Dennis Oppenheim, Adrian Paci, Marco Paleari, Marta Pierobon, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Nathlie Provosty, Mario Radice, Carol Rama, Marta Roberti, Medardo Rosso, Andrea Sala, Alberto Savinio, Emilio Scanavino, Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio, Dasha Shishkin, Francesco Simeti, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Ettore Tripodi, Brandi Twilley, Ignacio Uriarte, Lily van der Stokker, Vedovamazzei, Serena Vestrucci, Katarzyna Wiesiolek, Adolfo Wildt, Zoe Williams).