28 Oct 2009

The MAXXI Foundation in Rome presents 'Exhibiting Architecture | The 21st Century Museum'

The MAXXI Foundation, chaired by Pio Baldi, presents 'Exhibiting Architecture | The 21st Century Museum', an International Symposium by Margherita Guccione, Director of MAXXI architecture, coordinated by Maristella Casciato and Pippo Ciorra. The international symposium, organized together with Musica per Roma Foundation, will be held on Monday 9 and Tuesday 10 November at the Auditorium Parco della Musica. The Directors of some of the world's most important museums and architecture institutions, as well as a number of reputable curators, critics and scholars will meet for the first time in Rome to take part in an intense debate.

Rome will thus be the capital of architecture for two days of debates between directors of various institutions and curators, as well as architects, town-planners and historians, who will make an unprecedented contribution to the multitude of meanings of the Museum of the 21st Century, understood as a space for building a 'discourse' on the constantly evolving contemporary culture. The following issues will be dealt with during the conference:

- defining the tasks of the Italian Museum of Architecture;
- defining the nature and peculiar aspects of the curating activity in the realm of international projects;
- identifying privileged interlocutors and the public of reference;
- reconciling the activity of keeping documentary memory with the promotion and call for a topical debate on architecture.


PROGRAMME:

Monday 9th November, 2009

session I: The international network of the museums of architecture

- 2.00 pm: Welcome speech Pio Baldi, Presidente Fondazione MAXXI; Introduction Maristella Casciato, Keynote speaker Barry Bergdoll (MoMA, New York)
- 3.45 pm Round table
Chair: Marco De Michelis (IUAV, Venezia); Coordinator: Pippo Ciorra
Speakers: Margherita Guccione (MAXXI architettura, Roma), Francesco Benelli (Columbia University, New York), Ole Bouman (NAi, Rotterdam), Marie-Ange Brayer (FRAC, Orléans), Fulvio Irace (Politecnico di Milano), Dietmar M. Steiner (Architektur Zentrum, Wien)
Respondents: Christophe Pourtois (CIVA, Bruxelles); Piero Ostilio Rossi (Università La Sapienza, Roma)
-6:30 pm: Lecture by Gianfranco Dioguardi (Politecnico di Bari)

Tuesday 10th November, 2009

session II: Museums in display

- 9:30 am: Introduction Pippo Ciorra
Keynote speakers: Jean-Louis Cohen (New York University); Giuliana Bruno (Harvard University); Franco Purini (Università La Sapienza, Roma)

session III: Architecture exhibitions: curators, managers and designers

- 3:00 pm: Round table
Chair: Mirko Zardini (CCA, Montréal); Coordinator: Maristella Casciato
Speakers: Aaron Betsky (Cincinnati Art Museum), Stefano Boeri ('Abitare', Milano), Beatriz Colomina (Princeton University), Sarah Ichioka (The Architecture Foundation, London), Anna Mattirolo (MAXXI arte, Roma), Anna Tonicello (ICAM), Mark Wigley (Columbia University, New York)
Respondents: Manuel Blanco (Politecnico di Madrid); Francesco Garofalo (Facoltà di architettura, Pescara); Mario Lupano (IUAV, Venezia)
-6:30 pm: Lecture by Diller Scofidio+Renfro (New York)


Free entrance subject to seat availability.

From November 7th on www.maxxi.beniculturali.it a link to the MAXXI tv channel will be activated. Curated by Ultrafragola Channels TV, media partner of the event, it will be updated daily with referencies, interviews and news about the international conference.

The symposium is part of 'MAXXI SEES THE LIGHT' a programme that will accompany the final rush towards the Grand Opening of the National Museum of 21st Century Art, in the spring of 2010. During the week from 9 to 15 November Rome will thus be the international capital of architecture. Other events and initiatives under 'MAXXI SEES THE LIGHT' will be held on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November, with an Exclusive Preview of MAXXI's Grand Opening, and from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. the public will have a chance to visit the spaces created by Zaha Hadid. Booking is mandatory, starting from 1 November 2009. Guided tours in the Museum are organized by MAXXI educational service: edumaxxi@darc.beniculturali.it. (Thursday 12 November: preview for journalists and Zaha Hadid's press conference).

For further information: www.maxxi.beniculturali.it

Exhibiting Architecture press office
International press:
Alessandra Santerini, +39 335 6853767, alessandra.santerini@alice.it
Chiara Costa, +39 331 7001172, chiaracosta@alice.it

Italian press:
Maria Cristiana Costanzo, +39 333 2683341, mccostanzo@yahoo.it
Paolo Le Grazie, +39 3462372137, paololegrazie@fastwebnet.it

MAXXI press office
Beatrice Fabbretti, +39 335 6419189, beafabbretti@hotmail.com

Musica per Roma press office
+39 06 80241574 – 231 – 228, uffstampa@musicaperroma.it