Give a clear signal, break with the classic disco model. The beginning of the Magazzini Generali, among the contemporary legends of Milan, can be summed up like this. 1995, old disused railway depots are redeveloped and transformed into venues. Gian Carlo Soresina is at the head of the operation, with him his partners Giovanni Lanzone, Marco Garofalo, Emanuele Tessarolo and Alberto Guazzetti.
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They will be the team until 2005, when the hand will pass to Daniele Orlando, owner of the “Magazza” until 2015. In the meantime, the Magazzini become a European cultural reference, not only for the people of the night. Their stage is graced by Allen Ginsberg, Yoko Ono, Orlan, Carl Cox, Francois Kevorkian, Jeff Mills, Marco Carola, The Chemical Brothers, and then Lenny Kravitz, Black Eyed Peas, Quincy Jones, Mary J. Blige, Green Day, Fatboy Slim. The list is extended by protagonists of the international dancefloor such as David Guetta, Sven Väth, Four Tet, Black Coffee, Laurent Garnier, Peggy Gou and many others. The culmination of a dream that had not become Italian at all Also Italian, this is how Orlando summarizes that period.
Today, or rather, last year, Magazzini Generali turned thirty (and ownership passed to Jimmy Mahboob). And now, a new book traces and celebrates this story: XXX General Warehouses 1995-2025published by Emuse and edited by Stefano Astore, artistic director of clubbing and electronic music at Magazzini Generali (while the graphic design is from ’48, alias Ilaria Carcano and Marco Pea.
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Inside are archive photographs, original graphics and unpublished materials, accompanied by interviews by Alberto Traversi with the properties that have followed one another over the past thirty years and also with Marcelo Burlon, historic organizer of the Pink is Punk evening, linked to the world of fashion.
