MAXXI CELEBRATES THE PAST LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

The National Museum of XXI Century Art, better known as MAXXI, opened in 2010 as the first Italian institution dedicated to contemporary art. A huge, former Roman barracks in the Flaminio district of the capital city, was redesigned by Zaha Hadid (1950-2016) into a museum. Over the last decade, MAXXI, a hub open to all expressions of creativity, has welcomed over 3 million visitors. In 2019 the number of visitors was more than double 2010s, year one. It has presented 106 exhibitions, over 2,000 cultural events, and more than 5,000 educational and training activities, with tickets generating approximately $13.8 (Euro 12.7) million. There is a permanent collection of 530 pieces. There are installations by Bill Fontana, Katharina Grosse, Sol Lewitt, and Maurizio Mochetti; as well as works by Alighiero Boetti, Giulio Turcato, Francesco Clemente, William Kentridge, Mario and Marisa Mertz, Tomas Saraceno, Giuseppe Penone, and Maria Lai. For 2020, MAXXI announced a rich program including 18 new exhibitions. Among them, starting April 9 is the exhibition ‘Landscapes in Italian art at the turn of the millennium’; an exhibition dedicated to architect Aldo Rossi; and a tribute to scholar and gallery owner Claudia Gian Ferrari. Moreover, on June 21st, a new MAXXI museum will open in L’aquila, the earthquakehit capital of the Abruzzo region. Its location is the city’s historic center, in the beautiful and restored Palazzo Ardinghelli. The site-specific works entrusted in 2015 to five important Italian artists will be the first seen at the new Abruzzo outpost. The creators are Elisabetta Benassi, Daniela De Lorenzo, Alberto Garutti and late Ettore Spalletti. The Maxxi collection will house works by Liliana Moro, Maurizio Nannucci, Enzo Cucchi, Maurizio Cattelan, Piero Manzoni, Rudolph Stingel, Bruna Esposito, Philippe Rahm, Francois Roche, Toyo Ito, Sergio Musmeci, Sol

Lewitt, and Then & Calzadilla.