Franco Mazzucchelli (Milan, 24 January 1939) is an Italian artist.

Known for creating large-scale environmental installations that disrupt the everyday conventions of local communities, and for his pioneering experimentation with synthetic materials beginning in the 1960s, Mazzucchelli has produced a prolific body of work that continues to evolve today.

He has exhibited at, among others, the Venice Biennale, the Quadriennale di Roma, the Triennale di Milano, and numerous Italian and international institutions. He served as Deputy Director of Brera 2 and as Professor of Sculpture Techniques at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan.

EDUCATION

Mazzucchelli trained in Milan, where in the late 1950s he abandoned material painting and turned to sculpture. After an initial phase of experiments with canvases treated with plaster and vinyl glue, he began three-dimensional research that led him, in 1963, to Marino Marini’s class at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera.

During this period, he discovered in synthetic resins a new field of investigation: the transparency and physical qualities of the materials enabled him to explore relationships between volume, light, and depth. His first three-dimensional works took shape as systems of relations between overlapping forms and contrasting materials.

From the mid-1960s, he expanded his work to include inflatable plastic materials, opening a line of research that would become central to his later production.

MAJOR CYCLES OF WORKS AND RESEARCH AREAS

Abbandoni (1964–1970)

The Abbandoni mark the shift from works conceived for the exhibition space to objects released into public space. Mazzucchelli placed large PVC inflatables in open areas, leaving them to the curiosity of passersby. These actions aimed to remove art from institutional circuits and transform it into a collective event capable of triggering spontaneous reactions and offering a tool for analyzing public behavior and its social dynamics.

A.TO A. (1970–1973)

In the early 1970s, the Abbandoni found a system of categorization in the series A.TO A. (Art to Abandon). Inflatable objects marked with this acronym, to make them identifiable, were left in urban environments so the public could use them, appropriate them, or even destroy them. The unfolding of events dissolved the idea of the artwork as an untouchable object, offering it directly to passersby, who redefined its function.

Caduta di Pressione (1972–1974)

A research cycle centered on the various cases of pressure loss and their implications. Air, already present and fundamental in the artist’s practice, here opens a new field of inquiry, generating a group of works dedicated to studying breathing and oxygen deprivation. The research took shape through happenings, experiments with recording devices, photographic documentation of tests on his own body, and measurements conducted on the public.

Interventions (1972–ongoing)

The Interventions are large-scale site-specific actions that engage closely with the spaces in which they are installed. Made from inflatable materials, they occupy and redesign their surroundings, altering habitual patterns of use. The work becomes a temporary device that changes the perception of the place and invites the public to experience a new relational and visual dimension.

Sostituzione (1973)

For the exhibition Zona Azioni at the Triennale di Milano, Mazzucchelli installed an inflatable polyethylene layer that obstructed the museum entrance. The work forced visitors to confront the obstacle physically, overturning the usual logic of access and revealing how radically the function of a space can change. Sostituzione thus becomes a direct experience of negotiating with the environment.

Riappropriazioni (1975–ongoing)

The Riappropriazioni isolate segments of public space through large polyethylene structures that can be walked through and inhabited. These installations invite citizens to reuse spaces often subject to regulation, transforming them into zones of spontaneous sociality. By altering the perception of everyday places, Mazzucchelli encourages a renewed gaze and fosters inclusive participation free from hierarchy or constraint.

Personale-Personale (2002)

With Personale-Personale, the artist creates exhibitions intended not to be seen. Set up in deserted or unreachable locations, these exhibitions have the artist himself as their sole viewer. They remain documented only through photographs, reinforcing the idea of an art that can exist outside market logic.

Bieca Decorazione (2000–ongoing)

Since the early 2000s, Mazzucchelli’s research has opened to a more aesthetic dimension with the inflatable paintings of the Bieca Decorazione cycle. The title, which translates to “pure decoration”, used with self-irony, alludes to the aesthetic pleasure generated by painterly practice and its link with commercial dynamics. The marks impressed on the surfaces derive from portraits of geometries and mathematical schemes.

A.ON A. (2009–ongoing)

The A.ON A. (Art On Art) series activates a new form of public involvement: the inflatable works, installed in public or institutional spaces, are offered to participants, who can freely draw on their PVC surfaces. At the end of the action, the artist cuts the inflatable objects into sections to create inflatable paintings, each bearing a numbered code referencing the collective intervention.

Documents

Across several cycles – from Abbandoni to Riappropriazioni- Mazzucchelli developed a group of Documents: two-dimensional compositions combining original fragments of the inflatable works and photographs of the actions in which the were included. Each Document records the location, date, and other information, forming a kind of visual archive.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Franco Mazzucchelli’s interventions have been presented in numerous venues in Italy and abroad, including the Alfa Romeo Factory, Milan; Piazza San Fedele, Milan; Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan; Castello Sforzesco, Milan; Piazza dei Priori, Volterra; Lake Como; Munich; and the Camargue. His works have been included in major exhibitions, among them the 60th Venice Biennale, Venice (2024); the 13th Quadriennale, Rome (1999); the 11th Quadriennale, Rome (1986); the 37th Venice Biennale, Venice (1976); the 15th Triennale di Milano, Milan (1973); as well as in leading international institutions: MAN Museo d’Arte della Provincia di Nuoro, Nuoro (2025); MAPS – Museum of Art in Public Spaces, Køge (2025); Museo Madre, Naples (2024); MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Rome (2021); Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz (2021); Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris (2021); ArtScience Museum, Singapore (2020); Konsthall Lund, Lund (2020); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2019); Center for Art and Media – ZKM, Karlsruhe (2019); nGbK, Berlin (2018); Museo del Novecento, Milan (2018); among others.

In 2022, Franco Mazzucchelli won the Alfredo d’Andrade Lifetime Achievement Award.