Universally known among the main representatives of Italian Neorealism, writer, playwright and unconventional artist, Cesare Zavattini (Luzzara, 1902- Rome, 1989) was also a sensitive collector of works of art.
Creative in interpreting the collecting, Zavattini has devised a way to collect a large number of original works with the purpose of surrounding himself with them in his house and urging the artists to exchange views on different arguments that he often suggested. The works of this Collection, that he defined “Minimum” because they had to have the dimension of 8×10 centimeters, were, at the time of his death, over 2.000.
The idea of the tiny size of the work was a funny challenge for every artist, who had to keep his own originality despite a so strong condition, and it was at the same time a way to be able to buy unique works at a very affordable price; the choice of the size 8×10 could refer to the frame size of the cinema, an imaginary to which Zavattini was always linked.
After his death the Minimum Collection 8×10 was mostly sold by auction and thus dismembered, but fortunately a large part of this collection is now exhibited at MAGI, where the visitor can admire a sort of large unique work consisting of over 1.000 pieces created by several authors, including famous or less-known names.
Continuing on the track of the original idea, the corpus of works of small size is intended to grow because Giulio Bargellini has chosen to invite new artists to pursue the achievement of this collection, in order to continue to pay tribute to a leading figure of Italian culture, recalling his wit and intuition.
