Massimo Gazzè

Born in Rome on May 6, 1963, Massimo Gazzè is a journalist, communication expert, and a pioneer in the multimedia field. From a young age, he dedicated himself to art and cultural events. His career as a gallery owner began in the early 1980s in Basel when, alongside conservator-restorer Vito Milo, he founded Artistica Vigà GmbH. Located directly across from the Mattheus Kirche in the Art Basel district, it was the first gallery dedicated to contemporary Italian art in German-speaking Switzerland.

In 1984, he opened Sala d’Art Anteprima in Spain, introducing contemporary Italian artists to Catalan collectors. In 1985, at Palazzo de’Nari in Piazza Sant’Eustachio, he organized a major exhibition dedicated to Salvador Dalí, marking the artist’s long-awaited return to Rome. During this successful exhibition—the first in Rome to offer late-night hours—he met Adele Faccio, a long-serving Member of Parliament, leader of the feminist movement, and a historic icon of the 1970s civil rights battles in Italy.

This extraordinary woman—who before entering politics was a poet, artist, gallery owner, translator, and publisher—asked him to give up his activities in Basel and Barcelona to remain in Rome as her private secretary. She made a solemn promise: «My future retirement from politics will lead us back to the paths of our shared passions: art and culture»

Starting July 16, 1987, he also became her parliamentary assistant within the European Federalist Group at the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic.
Madame Faccio was a true woman of letters; in the 1960s, she had worked for the Enciclopedia Treccani and Mondadori, for whom she translated Che Guevara’s « Guerrilla« .

As a journalist, she encouraged Massimo toward his first editorial leadership role as director of the weekly magazine Calendarte, published by her own publishing house, L’Alternativa.
The Chamber of Deputies rejected her resignation five times. Finally, on April 18, 1989, Madame Faccio definitively retired from politics and kept her promise. Together, in 1990, they founded Artel Società Telematica, the first Italian company to explore the intersection of art and new technologies.

In parallel, following a public competition in October 1989, Massimo Gazzè joined the Italian civil service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He split his time between Artel and the Ministry, serving in the Minister’s Cabinet until 1992 under Gianni De Michelis, and later working closely with Emilio Colombo until 1993.
After serving in the Secretariat of the Undersecretary of State with Laura Fincato and Livio Caputo, he joined the Ministry’s Information Technology Center in 1994.

He left this post in 1996 to devote himself fully to editorial projects, notably the first multimedia edition dedicated to the great Catalan artist and intellectual Salvador Dalí.

The Salvador Dalí Multimedia Project, created in collaboration with the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation in Figueres, was presented at the Louvre Museum in Paris in the summer of 1996.
Subsequent multimedia publications include Barcelona – Ciudad Mediterránea (the official interactive guide to Barcelona, published in 2008 by Editorial Planeta) and Rome – The City and The History published for the Jubilee 2000 during Francesco Rutelli’s mayoral term.

As a multimedia pioneer, Massimo Gazzè has also produced interactive works for the Telematic Department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Faculty of Nuclear Medicine at the A. Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Ancona, the FC Barcelona Museum, and the Barcelona Aquarium, all while maintaining his artistic pursuits.

He has personally curated over 100 art and photography exhibitions and developed multimedia works in direct collaboration with Professors Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco and Maurizio Calvesi. Through his affiliated companies, he provided services to the world’s leading auction houses—from Christie’s and Sotheby’s to Farsetti and Finarte in Italy—as well as major museums, foundations, and archives of 20th-century Italian art.

His long-standing professional relationships include collaborations with Umberto Allemandi (publisher of Il Giornale dell’Arte) and the Società Dante Alighieri, particularly during the presidency of Ambassador Bruno Bottai.

Alongside Umberto Croppi (then CEO of the historic Florentine publishing house Vallecchi), he supported the initiative of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Umberto Vattani, in the creation and development of the Collezione Farnesina.

In 2002, he published its multimedia catalog with a virtual tour, and in 2015, he produced the Palais Farnese multimedia DVD (the seat of the French Embassy in Italy), created under the High Patronage of Ambassador Loic Hennekinne.

Journalism became his primary focus at the dawn of the third millennium when he began collaborating with IL TEMPO, Rome’s historic daily newspaper. For nearly a decade, he served as Head of New Media and Special Initiatives, as well as Director of the newspaper’s magazines and supplements.

In 2004, he founded and directed Il Tempo dell’Arte, a weekly supplement dedicated to contemporary art and culture. At Piazza Colonna, he organized conferences and events ranging from Notte Bianca to the DOC Festival, as well as a series of multimedia publications on the Great Masters of 20th-century Italian painting. These led to major exhibitions at Palazzo Wedekind, featuring artists such as Afro Basaldella, Massimo Campigli, and Giorgio Morandi.

After ten years on the board, he assumed in 2012 the Vice-Presidency of the CEJ founded in 1962 by Polish journalist Karol Kleszczynski. During the same period, he supported his dear friend Pino Oddo in the outdoor cinema business, initially as Vice-President and, following Oddo’s death in 2015, as President of Arene di Roma.

From summer 2016 to March 2017, he directed the Centro Culturale Elsa Morante, a large cultural hub in the Roman suburbs. He successfully reopened the center, which had long been closed, under a temporary concession from the Municipality of Rome IX EUR.

In September 2016, he also became President of the Roma-Parigi Paris-Rome Association, which organizes the French Week in Rome—an initiative conceived by Madame Jacqueline Zana-Victor and realized in collaboration with the 13th Arrondissement of Paris and the Municipio Roma I Centro.

He has also served as Vice-President of the Multimedia World Federation (MWF) and was elected for one year as Secretary General of the IIFI (International Institute of Intercultural Federations). Currently, he serves as Director of the Center for Studies and Communication at Confimprese Turismo Italia and President of the CEJEE, where he is dedicated to promoting the intellectual role of the writer-journalist and acting as a Think Tank for the harmonization of press laws.