MAXXI

The Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo (German National Museum for the Arts of the XXI. Century, shortly also MAXXI ) is a museum of contemporary art in Rome.

History

1998 summed up the Italian Ministry of Culture, the decision to build a national museum for contemporary art in Rome because Rome was one of the few European capitals without its own museum of modern art. From the competition held the architect Zaha Hadid emerged. As the site for the new museum was chosen from an old military area in the late 19th century in the Flaminio district. The construction costs amounted to 150 million euros. Support of the new museum was a specially created state foundation.

The museum was opened in November 2009 with a performance by choreographer Sasha Waltz and is officially in use since May 2010. First directors were Margaret Guccione and Anna Mattirolo.

Architecture

Architect Zaha Hadid has fitted the building into the existing structures of the district. The museum has an L- shaped basic shape and consists of several long -faced concrete building parts that seem into each other over and to flow with each other. Inside the building by spacious galleries, slopes, ramps and curves is dominated artificial light and natural light from large glass fronts illuminate the galleries, chambers and cabinets. The individual floors are connected by floating black stairs.

Concept

The museum sees itself as a creative place and laboratory for contemporary art. In addition to the MAXXI kind that is entirely dedicated to the arts, it also houses the MAXXI Architettura, which deals with architecture. It is the first museum of architecture in Italy. The program includes in addition to exhibitions, workshops, conferences, lectures and performances. The museum also offers a broad educational program. The collection of the museum includes not only contemporary art works and architectural photographs and architectural designs, and an architectural archive.

The museum has a library, a café, a restaurant and a bookshop.