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A museum of the here and now
21st Century art: Rome's new MAXXI Museum
Rome's new MAXXI Museum is the first national museum devoted to 21st-Century art. As such, it's a refreshing alternative to all of that city's art and architecture of the last three thousand years.
Amazingly, this ultra-contemporary museum (designed by the Iraqi-born, London-based architect Zaha Hadid) fits right in with the old Rome, providing a striking continuity from the world's earliest intact building, the Pantheon— also built of arches and reinforced concrete walls— to this newest national building, located beyond the city's historic center, near both the Olympic stadium of Pier Luigi Nervi and the new concert hall by Renzo Piano.
To be sure, the 21st Century is only 12 years old. But 20th-Century art is already so old hat. The MAXXI— the name is an acronym for Museum of Art XXI— provides the opportunity to view what artists from many different countries are creating right now. Its current exhibitions challenge our perceptions. Isn't that what art is supposed to do?
At first sight, the MAXXI looks like a space ship with multiple wings that has just landed on an open piazza and might take off at any minute. Having viewed photographs of the MAXXI's soaring spaces with no right angles, I was prepared to be disoriented. But the experience was so was stimulating that I found myself wishing I lived in Rome and could participate in this exciting homage to the present.
Low birth rate
The entrance anchors the museum to this time and place with an outdoor installation by the Finnish artist Kaarina Kaikkonen, who has hung articles of children's clothing on diminishing clotheslines, suggesting space as something to be modified. It struck me as a commentary on all the clothes flapping between buildings in the streets of Naples and Venice. Or— another thought— it's a commentary on Italy's current depressingly diminishing birth rate.
"To Face," a special exhibition in the first gallery (through September), displays 30 of Paola De Pietri's landscape photographs of the Austrian and Italian front lines in World War I. Photos of mountain passes indicate how nature obliterates historic evidence of battles, turning them into memory without visual evidence.
From there I took the elevator to the top and began my ramp walk down, branching out to the galleries on either side, with solo exhibitions by an international array of artists from the MAXXI's permanent collection, initially small but increasing daily.
Violent dictatorships
Kara Walker, the well-known California artist, employs art for pointed historical comments on American race relations. Her sardonic projected images, titled "For the Benefit of all Races of Mankind (Most Specially the Master One, Boss)," may confirm many Europeans' largely outdated conceptions of American bigotry.
Doris Salcedo, from Bogota, Colombia, is represented by a memorable installation, Plegaria Muda ("Silent Prayer"), with wooden tables turned upside-down on supports of metal and wood. New blades of grass sprout between the boards on the undersides of the tables, representing the hope that life will conquer tyranny. It's a haunting, grief-stricken commemoration of the violence perpetrated by authoritarian regimes in Colombia and elsewhere.
Other outstanding works include the recent execution of Sol LeWitt's room-size 1982 work, Wall Drawing No. 375; The Widow, a huge 2004 installation of pre-coated polyester fabric and steel by Anish Kapoor; and Giuseppe Penone's 2007 room installation, Sculture di Linfa, previously shown seen in the Venice Biennale.
Penone is the well-known representative of the Arte Povera movement, which employs commonly found materials to create works of art. In this installation the walls are lined with thick, textured leather, and the slick floor is crossed by a wooden board with markings of tree sap.
Albanian wedding
Videos by Adrian Paci of Albania depict basic ceremonial traditions that seem rooted in a culture. The Visitors (2011) concentrates on the custom of the handshake by guests and participants in various wedding ceremonies in northern Albania. It's a subtle examination of status and ritual, archaic and contemporary, spontaneous and pre-determined.
Remo Salvadori's seemingly simple 1999 installation, Nel momento, Continuo infinito presente ("The Infinite Continuation of the Present"), haunts my memory. A circular ring of a steel cable without beginning or end seems to change with each viewpoint. Its color and texture appear to vary, yet the ring doesn't. Very small, dense circles at its heart become wider and wider. Its base is the smooth, shiny floor. The eye sees movement where no movement occurs.
Like the century it celebrates, the MAXXI's collection is only now forming. Its potential— again, like our century— is infinite.♦
To read a response, click here.
Amazingly, this ultra-contemporary museum (designed by the Iraqi-born, London-based architect Zaha Hadid) fits right in with the old Rome, providing a striking continuity from the world's earliest intact building, the Pantheon— also built of arches and reinforced concrete walls— to this newest national building, located beyond the city's historic center, near both the Olympic stadium of Pier Luigi Nervi and the new concert hall by Renzo Piano.
To be sure, the 21st Century is only 12 years old. But 20th-Century art is already so old hat. The MAXXI— the name is an acronym for Museum of Art XXI— provides the opportunity to view what artists from many different countries are creating right now. Its current exhibitions challenge our perceptions. Isn't that what art is supposed to do?
At first sight, the MAXXI looks like a space ship with multiple wings that has just landed on an open piazza and might take off at any minute. Having viewed photographs of the MAXXI's soaring spaces with no right angles, I was prepared to be disoriented. But the experience was so was stimulating that I found myself wishing I lived in Rome and could participate in this exciting homage to the present.
Low birth rate
The entrance anchors the museum to this time and place with an outdoor installation by the Finnish artist Kaarina Kaikkonen, who has hung articles of children's clothing on diminishing clotheslines, suggesting space as something to be modified. It struck me as a commentary on all the clothes flapping between buildings in the streets of Naples and Venice. Or— another thought— it's a commentary on Italy's current depressingly diminishing birth rate.
"To Face," a special exhibition in the first gallery (through September), displays 30 of Paola De Pietri's landscape photographs of the Austrian and Italian front lines in World War I. Photos of mountain passes indicate how nature obliterates historic evidence of battles, turning them into memory without visual evidence.
From there I took the elevator to the top and began my ramp walk down, branching out to the galleries on either side, with solo exhibitions by an international array of artists from the MAXXI's permanent collection, initially small but increasing daily.
Violent dictatorships
Kara Walker, the well-known California artist, employs art for pointed historical comments on American race relations. Her sardonic projected images, titled "For the Benefit of all Races of Mankind (Most Specially the Master One, Boss)," may confirm many Europeans' largely outdated conceptions of American bigotry.
Doris Salcedo, from Bogota, Colombia, is represented by a memorable installation, Plegaria Muda ("Silent Prayer"), with wooden tables turned upside-down on supports of metal and wood. New blades of grass sprout between the boards on the undersides of the tables, representing the hope that life will conquer tyranny. It's a haunting, grief-stricken commemoration of the violence perpetrated by authoritarian regimes in Colombia and elsewhere.
Other outstanding works include the recent execution of Sol LeWitt's room-size 1982 work, Wall Drawing No. 375; The Widow, a huge 2004 installation of pre-coated polyester fabric and steel by Anish Kapoor; and Giuseppe Penone's 2007 room installation, Sculture di Linfa, previously shown seen in the Venice Biennale.
Penone is the well-known representative of the Arte Povera movement, which employs commonly found materials to create works of art. In this installation the walls are lined with thick, textured leather, and the slick floor is crossed by a wooden board with markings of tree sap.
Albanian wedding
Videos by Adrian Paci of Albania depict basic ceremonial traditions that seem rooted in a culture. The Visitors (2011) concentrates on the custom of the handshake by guests and participants in various wedding ceremonies in northern Albania. It's a subtle examination of status and ritual, archaic and contemporary, spontaneous and pre-determined.
Remo Salvadori's seemingly simple 1999 installation, Nel momento, Continuo infinito presente ("The Infinite Continuation of the Present"), haunts my memory. A circular ring of a steel cable without beginning or end seems to change with each viewpoint. Its color and texture appear to vary, yet the ring doesn't. Very small, dense circles at its heart become wider and wider. Its base is the smooth, shiny floor. The eye sees movement where no movement occurs.
Like the century it celebrates, the MAXXI's collection is only now forming. Its potential— again, like our century— is infinite.♦
To read a response, click here.
What, When, Where
The MAXXI. Via Guido Reni. Rome, Italy. www.fondazionemaxxi.it.
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