MAXXI: the museum of the XXI century
Contemporary art comes back to Rome

In a few months MAXXI, the first national museum of arts for the 21st century, will open in the Italian capital.

By Emiliano Pretto
november 2008

The Maxxi, the museum of arts for the 21st century is intended as Rome’s answer to the Tate Gallery in London, the Guggenheim in Bilbao and New York’s Moma. The vast project is the latest extraordinary design from one of the world’s highest-profile architects Zaha Hadid. It’s being built in the Flaminio district north of Rome’s historic centre a stone’s throw from the Tiber. Once a sleepy residential quarter enlivened only by the Olympic and Flaminio stadiums and some smaller sports arenas, over the last decade the area has undergone a town planning transformation which was sparked by the opening of Renzo Piano’s Auditorium. The Arts complex, which opened in 2002, has proved a huge success with the public and has been credited with changing Roman attitudes to contemporary architecture. The idea of building Italy’s first national contemporary arts museum in Flaminio was first put forward by then Minister of Culture Walter Veltroni, who subsequently was Mayor of Rome 2001 to 2008.
It was 1998 when the Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, out of 273 candidates, won the international competition to design the ambitious, publicly funded MAXXI. The concrete structure with glass roof will cover a surface of 30,000 sq m, on a site that was originally occupied by a car factory and subsequently by an army barracks that were turned into the first site of the museum. Hadid was already an internationally renowned architect and is still the only woman ever to have won the Pritzker Prize (architecture’s Nobel).

Zaha Hadid, the Anglo-Iraqi architect

Her stunning design was acclaimed for its originality and formal fluidity. Its essential feature is the superimposition of long flowing galleries on various levels which offers a flexible, interdisciplinary arena for the exhibition of contemporary art and architecture and for live events.
The building flows in long smooth curves. In the architect’s words: ”The curving walls I designed are not only on the interior to be exhibited on, but on the exterior too. So you can have murals, projections, installations: it is all about an interior-exterior existence.”
The intersection of volumes and walls lend character to the project, alternating empty and full spaces, interiors and exteriors. The continuity of the space guides the visitor along a fluid route, all covered by a glass roof which means every angle is flooded with natural light. There will be five galleries, up to 7 meters high and some almost 100 meters in length. There’s not a right-angle in sight; all is smooth curves. There are no stairways, only gently rising and falling walkways connecting one exhibition space to another. Huge windows will offer visitors a wonderful panorama of the Rome skyline.
One-third of the museum site – 10,000 sq m – will be given over to exhibition space. The facade of the old Montello barracks has been restored but otherwise remains unchanged. Inside has been completely modernised to make way for the startling geometries of Hadid’s design.

Pio Baldi, who from the spring of 2009 will be the museum’s director, has long been working to set up MAXXI’s permanent exhibitions. Among the artists whose work will be displayed are Francis Alys, Michael Raedecker, William Kentridge, Alessandro Pessoli, Thomas Schutte with a work composed of 140 engravings and Kara Walker whose large cut-paper diptych “Hunting Scene” (2001) was one of the museum’s first acquisitions. Prestigious works by Andy Warhol and Gerard Richter will also feature.
There wil be plenty of space for contemporary photography and graphic art. Installations will also play a important part in the life of the museum, including works by internationally renowned artists like Anish Kapoor, Maurizio Mochetti and Michelangelo Pistoletto. An entire section will be dedicated to architecture, in a space that will grow into Italy’s first museum of architecture.
The five-year construction of the centre has been blighted by delays. It is to be hoped that work in the next few months goes smoothly and that the spring of 2009 will mark a new future for contemporary art in Rome.