How are museums in Naples ensuring they stay relevant?

Editorial Feature

By Google Arts & Culture

The BuildingMuseo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

Two museum directors explain the ways they’re working with their local neighborhoods

Dr Paolo Giulierini is the director of the MANN Archaeological Museum of Naples and Mrs. Laura Valente is the president of the Madre Contemporary Art Museum. Both institutions have become staples in the city as places of historical and cultural heritage, but while they both house objects, artifacts, and artworks from thousands of years ago, what relevance do they have in the city today?

Here Dr Giulierini and President Valente talk about the individual missions of each institution and the ways in which their teams are working to maintain a strong relationship with the community that surrounds each museum.

National Archaeological Museum of Naples building

Hall of the Sundial (1612/1820)Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

Hall of the Sundial at National Archaeological Museum of Naples

Sala 17 (2010/2018)Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

Sala 18 at National Archaeological Museum of Naples

Dr Giulierini, how does a museum that preserves artifacts dating back millenia stay relevant to the local community?

Dr Giulierini: From the past comes an important message for the present: it’s a message that abides by the complexity of beauty, products of many components and, of course, contradictions. To convey these ideas in the contemporary world means to modernize the language and the ways of communicating these objects, in order to demonstrate the everlasting importance of them and understand what we can learn from them.

Giulia Piscitelli, Intermedium by Giulia PiscitelliMadre - Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum

Giulia Piscitelli, Intermedium (From the collection of Madre - Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum)

John Armleder, 360° by John ArmlederMadre - Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum

John Armleder, 360° (From the collection of Madre - Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum)

Madre contemporary art museum building

And President Valente, how does a museum of contemporary art stay relevant in the community it is in and Naples as a whole?

President Valente: The Madre is where the eclectic, creative, and cultural ideas expressed by the city of Naples and the region Campania has taken shape since the 60s. This function, fundamental for our society, has been enriched by the new challenges of contemporaneity. So how do we put the museum in touch with the desires, needs, anxieties, and hopes of the public? How do we become a more social museum, to transform art into something alive and interactive? To answer these questions, Madre today takes a more active role in the creation and production of artworks, exhibitions and educational programs, made ad hoc, or again in the creation and production of performances and spectacular events. We’ve tried to redefine its role in the social fabric.

For example, with 1977-2018: Mario Martone Museo Madre, this project was an immersive exhibition, built around a movie-flow that sums up 40 years of the career of a great director. Through immersive staging, the experience of the art museum and the theatre of cinema became intertwined. This seemed to resonate with people as the exhibition had around 23,000 visitors of all ages and backgrounds, for the duration of its 5 month run.

1977 2018 Mario Martone Museo Madre by Mario MartoneMadre - Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum

1977-2018 Mario Martone Museo Madre exhibition view at Madre

1977 2018 Mario Martone Museo Madre by Mario MartoneMadre - Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum

1977-2018 Mario Martone Museo Madre exhibition view at Madre

Can you both provide an example of how each institution carries out its mission beyond the museum walls?


Dr Giulierini: Through the Obvia project, MANN has established an extra-museum network called Extramann to promote a partnership between 16 cultural sites of the city. The network is successful not only thanks to a correlated discounts policy, but mostly due to a common vision that allows us to identify a Naples-based cultural brand that unifies big autonomous museums with smaller, more specific sites, therefore strengthening the Partenopean identity.

Sala 17 (2010/2018)Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

Sala 17 at National Archaeological Museum of Naples

Felice@MadreMadre - Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum

Felice@Madre (From the collection of Madre - Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum)

President Valente: Madre has recently promoted numerous projects and events aimed at redefining its relationship within its neighborhood, as well as other areas of the city and the suburbs. An example would be the project Felice@Madre, which saw the creation of a summer factory where children and teenagers of the suburbs of Naples participated in a series of workshops. Through this, we created the ability to explore and “seize” the museum space in a way that wouldn’t normally be impossible.

Additionally the recent walkabout we organized for the exhibition 1977 2018. Mario Martone Museo Madre, saw a completely new approach. The director took a “walk” with the visitors starting from Madre – in the city centre – and finishing at San Giovanni a Teduccio, in the east side of the city. It was an occasion to reflect, both from the point of view of one of the most important directors of our country, but also on the relationship between the neighborhoods of Naples, which are so close to one another but each one full of cultures, social layers, and different historical-urbanistic heritages.

Felice@MadreMadre - Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum

Felice@Madre (From the collection of Madre - Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum)

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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