MAXXI Launches Contemporary Art Museum in L’Aquila

The long awaited MAXXI L’Aquila opened its doors on June 3, 2021. © Andrea Jemolo

MAXXI L’Aquila, the long-awaited contemporary art museum in the region of Abruzzo’s capital, was inaugurated by Italy’s Culture Minister Dario Franceschini on May 28, 2021.The museum officially opened its doors on June 3. This new branch of Rome’s national contemporary art museum is located in the restored 18th century Palazzo Ardinghelli. In a dispatch from L’Aquila, our AMHS contact Goffredo Palmerini reported that the inauguration of the museum was also attended by Pierluigi Biondi, Mayor of L’Aquila; Marco Marsilio, President of the Abruzzo region; Giovanna Melandri, President of the MAXXI Foundation; Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Director of MAXXI L’Aquila; and Sergey Razov, Ambassador to Italy of the Russian Federation.

The museum is under the management of Rome’s Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo. Palazzo Ardinghelli underwent extensive restoration, financed with the support of Russia, after L’Aquila’s devastating earthquake in April 2009. The project, stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic, has seen the complete renovation of the 18th-century Baroque building which was formerly the home of Culture Ministry offices. MAXXI President Melandri has described the reopening of Palazzo Ardinghelli as symbolic of a “double rebirth,” after the devastation of the earthquake and the suspension of time caused by the coronavirus lockdown. The project is described by MAXXI as offering the community “a new collective place, a platform of cultural creativity, open, shared, at the service of the relaunch of the city.”

The opening exhibition, entitled Punto di Equilibrio, Pensiero spazio luce da Toyo Ito a Ettore Spalletti, will include eight new site-specific installations among 60 works from the MAXXI Collection. The inauguration was live-streamed on the museum’s social media channels, and Italian state broadcaster RAI 5 dedicated an evening program to the new museum. In the early hours of April 6, 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck L’Aquila and the surrounding area, killing 309 people, leaving 70,000 homeless and devastating more than 50 villages in the Abruzzo region. AMHS members may recall that our Society raised over $17,000 in monetary contributions to help the victims. Palazzo Ardinghelli, badly damaged during the earthquake, was restored with a €7.2 million donation from the Russian government, agreed to during the G8 summit hosted in L’Aquila by Italy’s then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in 2009.

The idea to convert the palace into a contemporary art museum was backed by Franceschini, who in 2015 announced the Culture Ministry’s collaboration with MAXXI and an annual government grant of €2 million. If you would like to check out the types of events the museum is planning, or take a look at some of the art works, go to maxxi.archeoares.it. The events planned for this summer sound very interesting, including.“We are the Thousand — Incredibile Storia di Rockin’ 1000,” “Disco Ruin  — 40 anni di club culture italiana,” and “Fellini — Io sono un clown.” MAXXI L’Aquila hopes to kickstart a cultural revival in the city. Partnerships are already in place with various institutions in the city such as the Gran Sasso Science Institute, the University of L’Aquila, the Academy of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Abruzzo. The public programs will include events with artists, talks, book launches and training courses. Admission for residents of L’Aquila and the wider Abruzzo region will be free for one year. ❚