Galliate Contemporanea presents an intense and current reinterpretation of Italian art from the Seventies through the works of Fernando De Filippi, Antonio Carena, and Mario Surbone, three protagonists of the late 20th century united by a common experimental tension and a profound reflection on contemporaneity.

Set up in the historic spaces of the Castello di Galliate, the exhibition does not aim to offer a chronological reconstruction of the period, but rather proposes a critical path that highlights how the anxieties, social transformations, and cultural urgencies of those years were elaborated by the artists in emblematic forms that are still surprisingly current today. Their works explore border territories between analytical and conceptual abstraction, between formal rigor and poetic tension, giving life to an open and hierarchy-free dialogue capable of stimulating reflection and imagination.

The exhibition thus takes shape as a space for meeting and dialogue, not just an exhibition space but an environment for comparing past and present, memory and project. An invitation to consider art not just as a mere aesthetic object, but as a civil gesture and shared responsibility, capable of helping us understand the complexity of our time and face the future with awareness, confidence, and openness.

The realization of Galliate Contemporanea was made possible thanks to the generous participation of the artists Fernando De Filippi, Antonio Carena, and Mario Surbone.

We thank the Municipality of Galliate, Mayor Alberto Cantone, and Councilor for Culture Susanna Garzulano for their support of the project and for hosting the exhibition in the spaces of the Castello di Galliate.

Special thanks to the sponsoring bodies - Regione Piemonte, Provincia di Novara, Terre dell’Alto Piemonte Novara, and Rotary Club Val Ticino Novara - and to the entities that collaborated in the realization of the initiative: Amici del Teatro Carlo Coccia di Novara, Conservatorio Guido Cantelli di Novara, Bottega della Cornice di Novara, Italgrafica, and Domenico Minniti and Tiziano Tornielli for the setups.

We thank Giovanni Cordero and Federica Mingozzi for their critical contributions and presentation of the artists.

A special thanks to the young performers of the Conservatorio Guido Cantelli di Novara for the inaugural musical intervention dedicated to the romances of Francesco Paolo Tosti.