The John Reed gym brand is the only one in Italy that combines fitness, music and art in real clubs with DJ sets that host exhibitions with exceptional curators. The latest? A tribute to Picasso born from the genius of Angelo Frosio, defined by Peggy Guggenheim as “the greatest living artist”.
John Reed is a fictional name that, in the mind of its inventor Rainer Schaller, evokes that of a “rocker” with a free soul and a curious mind.
The first John Reed center was opened, in fact, in Bonn in 2016 with the dream of creating a new concept of gym that would enhance the importance of music during training and experiment with the healing power of art, making it an integral part of each session.
John Reed has always recognized the importance of artistic expression as an integral part of one’s identity, also in sports.
(Samuele Frosio, CEO RSG Group Italia & art curator)
A concept that has been very successful, leading John Reed to open 48 clubs in 12 countries, including Berlin, London, Istanbul, Los Angeles, present in Italy in Trieste and since 2017 in Mestre (members can obviously have access to all the gyms in the network).
Located in the central Via Carducci, with parking reserved for members, the John Reed headquarters in Mestre offers 2200 square meters on 2 floors of rooms equipped for all types of training and courses, Bose speakers for optimal use of sound, and many, many works of art.
Travel memorabilia, books, neon art, paintings and many murals by international and local artists such as Ron Miller’s beautiful Geishas. Conceived as a sort of Wunderkammer of a contemporary traveler, in the interior design references to the East mix with those of the underground mood of suburban gyms.
Inside the John Reed gyms, exhibitions are regularly set up together with entities that embrace their same philosophy. Like the one currently hosted in Mestre, “Picasso Celebration 1973-2023 50th Anniversary”, the result of the collaboration with the Folligeniali Museum and the Bergognone Art School.
A unique project, the first social cooperative in the world to use art as a tool for the treatment of people with cognitive difficulties of all kinds, the Bergognone Art School, located in Lodi, was founded in 1975 by Angelo Frosio, an art master and friend of the famous collector Peggy Guggenheim, founder of the homonymous museum in Venice, who called him “the greatest living artist”.
The exhibition, curated by his son Samuele Frosio, CEO of RSG Group Italia of which John Reed in part, is an accurate account of Picasso’s artistic evolution, from the Blue period to the Rose period, through works inspired by his art, including lithographs and ceramics, created by the students of the Art School.
The next exhibition, coming in October 2024, always in collaboration with the Folligeniali Museum, will be entitled “Italian Graffiti” and dedicated to the national panorama of American street art born in the Sixties in New York.
And every Monday and Thursday evening at John Reed Mestre there is a very special guest: a DJ who plays live from 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm to make you start or end the week with the right vibe. From Kenny Carpenter to Spiller, there are also many presences of the most famous names in music.
You sign up to take care of your body, but in the end at John Reed, thanks to art, you also take care of your soul.
The Secret
John Reed is part of RSG Group, the European leader in the fitness sector, also present in Italy with the brands McFIT and Gold’s Gym.
Useful Info
John Reed Fitness
Via Giosuè Carducci 23
30172 Mestre, Venezia
Tel. +39 02 84207003
Monthly subscription: from 40 euro
Free admission to exhibitions even for non-members of the Club every Saturday from 3pm to 9pm
