“Visionaries through trying to give form to the world, and futurists through finding a form of the wold and through bringing together the please of the project’s sectors where there is no crisis in the passion for the future, where there is always space for desire and for its revolutionary essence” Cristiana Collu, the Mart Director
The Mart, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, is one of the most important museums in Italy. Founded in 1987 under the aegis of the Provincia autonoma di Trento (Autonomous province of Trento), the Mart today has three venues: the main site of the Museum and the Casa d’Arte Futurista Depero, both in Rovereto, and the Galleria Civica in Trento.
The main site of the Mart is a large architectural complex inaugurated in 2002 and designed by Mario Botta and Giulio Andreolli. Designed as a ‘cultural hub’ more than a traditional museum, in its public spaces the Mart also includes a public library, a large auditorium and a cafe. On top of organising exhibitions, events and workshops, it hosts artists, curators, companies, international, local and town events, offering itself as a welcoming, accessible destination.
After ten years during which the museum has increased its holdings and acquired international status thanks to a system of alliances, the new directorship of Cristiana Collu as of 2012 has placed the museum on the front line of innovation, sustainability and participation. The Mart has become an exhibition centre of European importance, a centre for listening and dialogue for the surrounding region, an interlocutor for leading international museums and a machine producing continuous stimuli for the public, for artists, collectors, companies and the local communities.
The project that embodies the Mart’s vision today and prefigure forthcoming developments is “The magnificent obsession”: a mind-spinning kilometre on the second floor of the museum, marked by almost 3000 works from the collections and including interventions by Italian and international artists, alternating with concerts, book presentations, videos, archive documents and educational workshops.
The Mart – Photos by Fernando Guerra
