Zaha Hadid, Rome "Starchitect" and Designer of MAXXI, dies at 65

The Iraq-born "starchitect" Zaha Hadid died Thursday, March 31.  Her architecture has been widely praised for its ground-breaking, geometrical forms, constructions that owe more than a little to her background in mathematics and study in London with Rem Koolhaas.  She designed only one building in Rome--the state's contemporary art gallery known as MAXXI, which opened in 2010.  In our opinion, it's not her best, but we're glad Rome has this example of her work, described in the New York Times as "voluptuous and muscular, muscular...with ramps that flowed like streams and floors tilted like hills, many walls swerving and swooning."  That's the best description we've read of the building's atrium, though we remain ambivalent about MAXXI, in part because of the way it interacts with the surrounding Flaminio neighborhood.  We expressed that concern in a 2010 post, reprinted below.  An indication of her enormous influence, even with one building in Rome, Hadid shows up in more than a dozen RST posts.  We've provided links to the most significant ones just above the 2010 re-post.  Today, we, too, mourn the loss of a superb and influential architect. 
 
Significant past RST posts on Hadid and MAXXI:
As #30 on RST's Top 40: http://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2010/01/rst-top-40-30-zaha-hadids-maxxi.html
Hadid as one of Rome's "Starchitects": http://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2010/11/romes-starchitects-meier-piano-hadid.html
One evening at MAXXI: http://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2012/03/evening-at-maxxi.html
A comparison of MAXXI to the City's contemporary art gallery, MACRO: http://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-building-wars-maxxi-vs-macro-romes.html
A walk-through of a major exhibit at the collection-deprived MAXXI: http://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2013/09/maxxi-francesco-vezzoli-performance.html
And the October 7, 2010 re-post:
We opened the Monday morning New York Times to discover that Zaha Hadid had won the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Stirling Prize for MAXXI, Rome's new modern art gallery.  The prize is given to the architect of the building that has "made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year."  It made us wonder about the state of British architecture.  Our doubts were confirmed when we checked a website that handicapped (like the horse races) the finalists in the competition, recently listing MAXXI as the odds-on favorite at 4:6, with another exciting and glamorous entry, Clapham Manor Primary School, at 8:1. 

Regular readers of this blog will know that the massive MAXXI, the Titanic of Museums, is not our favorite building; we're already on record suggesting that it doesn't really fit into the Flaminio neighborhood (or any neighborhood, for that matter).  And it may seem unfair that we should take another potshot at it.  But the RIBA announcement offered new inspiration.

And we were inspired enough to include MAXXI on the Flaminio walk of our new book, Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler.  See more on the book at the end of this post. 

In awarding the RIBA prize, the judges described MAXXI as the "quintessence of Zaha's [what's with the first name stuff?] constant attempt to create a landscape as a series of cavernous spaces drawn with a free, roving line."  Cavernous, yes, and the caverns are not all that badly connected inside, if that's what's meant by a "free, roving line."  So maybe the award's for the interior.  [We added the two interior photos below to the original post]

MAXXI lobby, 2010

Cavenous gallery

Outside, things are different.  We discovered the problem on a very hot day in June, escorting New York City friends to MAXXI for their first visit.  After a miserable bus ride (the tram lines were under construction), we found ourselves on the block north of the only entry point, looking forlornly at the entrance--only 50 yards away, but inacessible--and faced with a MAXXI-walk around the block with an unsettled companion who was both irritated and near prostrate with the heat by the time we were able to enter the museum's air-conditioned interior.

Maybe we should have known better where we were going, but the experience made clear to us that MAXXI's mass--its dominance of nearly an entire block--and lack of accessibility were real and related problems. 

And so we returned one evening to document the source of our irritation--and maybe have some fun.  On this occasion, the museum's offer of free admission and music had brought young people out in droves and long lines--so many that we immediately gave up any thought of gaining access to the courtyard, let alone those roving caverns inside.

Instead, we scootered around back and took some photos (above and left) of MAXXI's intimidating,  inaccessible, and ugly back side, dominated by windowless concrete massifs, colorful barriers, and fencing.

Watch for icebergs! 



Bill

The large space outside the gallery entrance works well with "big" art [photo added to original post]

(Dianne points out MAXXI is #30 on our Rome the Second Time  Top 40.) And, as noted above, it is on our Flaminio tour - both its front and its back.  Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler features tours of the "garden" suburb of Garbatella; the 20th-century suburb of EUR, designed by the Fascists; the 21st-century music and art center of Flaminio, along with Mussolini's Foro Italico, also the site of the 1960 summer Olympics; and a stairways walk in Trastevere. This 4-walk book is available in all print and eBook formats The eBook is $1.99 through amazon.com and all other eBook sellers.  See the various formats at smashwords.com. 

Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler now is also available in print, at amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores, and other retailers; retail price $5.99.

RST Makes History: 600th post!

It would nice to claim that we've been writing this blog longer than Jon Stewart hosted the Daily Show.  Unfortunately, it's not true.  Stewart's first show was January 1999, and RST didn't premier until February 17, 2009.  We're disappointed, to be sure.  But it's reassuring to know that we've been "on" almost as long as Hannity (no, we don't watch), and longer than Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Parks and Recreation, Castle, Glee, and The Good Wife.  2429 days.  

The occasion for all this self praise is our 600th post, an average of one every 4 days, roughly.  It has helped to have Rome as our subject city, rather than, say, Keokuk or Kankakee (in the words of an old song, no insult intended--we're from Buffalo, after all).  To paraphrase a Rome friend, whenever we wonder what to write about, or think we may have finally exhausted the city's possibilities, we just walk outside.

To celebrate our longevity and persistence, we thought we would offer our readers a few blasts from the past, links to posts they may not have seen when they first appeared, but have witnessed large numbers of page views over the years (in this context, "large" means more than, say, 500 hits--sometimes much more).  You could find these, we know, by using the site Search button, or through a Google search, but you probably didn't, or won't.  Besides, we've done some winnowing.

Here are 11 we think you'll enjoy.  And thanks for your support!  Now if Hannity would only get fired.

Making Limoncello

Rome's Modern Churches Are Worth the Trek

The Politics of an Anthem: Bella Ciao

Walking the (Aurelian) Wall: Wall Walk I of our series

Libya and Italian Colonialism

Garibaldi in Rome

Ethiopian Abebe Bikila, winning the 1960 marathon,
running barefoot

The 1960 Rome Olympics

The Building Wars: MAXXI vs MACRO

World War II at Home: Via Tasso

Gabbo: The Death and Life of Gabriele Sandri






Born Again in Piazza Fiume

la Rinascente, Piazze Fiume

MACRO's playground

Okay, we whine about MACRO and this city contemporary art gallery always seems about to fold, treats patrons shabbily, and costs too much.  But then it entrances us.  The latest artwork in the central part of the main MACRO (on via Nizza, not far from via Nomentana in one direction, and Piazza Fiume in another - a few blocks from the city walls) is a huge textile work.  The artist, Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, was born in Japan and lives in Nova Scotia.  She is known for her large-scale textiles that work as children's playgrounds, and this certainly is one of them.  Titled "Harmonic Motion" in English and "Rete dei draghi" - or "Dragons' net" in Italian, it's both harmonious and a little scary in the way it envelopes and "captures" you.

Those dark slacks in the center?  me trying to get up and in; the kids
definitely were better at this.

We saw children enjoying themselves climbing in and around the sculpture and, so, I had to try it myself.  A bit claustrophobic and not too easy for an adult, but a kick nonetheless.  And, it appears it's free.  You can go into this part of the museum without needing a ticket.  The sculpture will be up until the end of this year.  So go for it!

via Nizza 138, open 11-7 Tuesday through Sunday, except major holidays, and who knows what kind of government shut-downs.  Fairly bad Web site, appears to be only in Italian, "Menu" - at the bottom, print tiny.  But give it a try.

Dianne

Made it - that's my face through all that fibre.

How not to run an art museum: a few lessons for Rome

This artwork at MACRO last year may be a subtle message from
the employees to the patrons... read on

Okay, I know I shouldn't whine, and we try to restrain ourselves and not publish whiny pieces.  There's enough of that to go around in Rome without our piling on.  But several recent art museum experiences have forced my hand.  Here are four current beefs:

1) rude employees
2) explanations only in Italian
3) placards designed not to be read easily:  too small, too high, too low - in just one day, we saw them all
4) anti-social and force-fed audio guides

I'll start with the rude employees, since they disrupt the art-going experience the most.  And I'll pick on the employees at MACRO, the city's contemporary art gallery that we had (perhaps) the bad sense to rate above MAXXI, the state's contemporary art gallery.  They are just consistently rude and, as a result, cast a pall over my entire MACRO experience.

We have always had a soft spot for MACRO, the runner-up in most people's eyes, to the bigger, glitzier, starchitect-driven MAXXI.  But it seems when MACRO tried to imitate its bigger sister, it decided it should get chippier as well.  We loved the MACRO evening when they handed out Campari sodas and let people don hard hats and go down into what would become the main entrance/new addition by Odile Decq.  We've done more than half a dozen posts that highlight this gallery.

No money back... one of these signs - now which one? - warns
you the main building isn't open, tho' it just had its grand
opening.

So when the addition finally opened, we were excited to see it.  We trooped over to MACRO, handed out our then 9 Euros each (quite a price rise from the former 2 Euro entrance fee, but admittedly less than the now 11 Euro fee), only to be told as we walked to the new addition that - even though it had just had its grand opening a few days before - it wasn't really open.  And, no, we couldn't get our money back.  Couldn't we see the sign, said the unrelenting ticket seller.  In the photo here you can see that there isn't exactly one sign that stands out.  I guess that sign about the new addition not being open is here somewhere!

That was 2010.  Oh, well, we'll come next year, we said.  And we did, in 2011.  Then the new entrance was open - so open they wouldn't even let you in the former entrance.  One of those, okay, now just to get in, you get to walk all the way around the block (MAXXI pulled this stunt too - and the blocks aren't exactly short) from what you thought was the entrance.  And once you enter, you are treated to the opportunity to watch 6 employees while no one even acknowledges you're at the counter (photo).  Nonetheless, we swallowed our temptation to say "screw you" and walk out, and enjoyed the new building and exhibits - enough, as I noted above, that we rated MACRO above MAXXI in our post, even while taking note of the less-than-helpful employees.

Everyone except the woman in jeans is an employee...count 'em,
and no one is even greeting her.

So now we're at 2013 (I guess we survived 2012 without getting torqued).  And now there was only 1 employee at the counter and one patron - me.  Nonetheless, the woman at the counter managed to be snarly and unpleasant, even though we had combo tickets already purchased for 7 days of MACRO Testaccio and the basic MACRO.  Maybe she was disappointed she didn't get a sale.  We had to keep showing our tickets at each exhibit hall, and they were scrutinized.  "You know, these are good only for 7 days..."  Yes, we know, and it's within the 7 days!   Add to that less than stellar exhibitions (walls of flat work talking about galleries going back decades, but giving up in 2001 and not talking about the current decade, e.g.), and maybe we'll have to revise our 1-2 order for MACRO and MAXXI (MAXXI is on one of the 4 tours in our new book, Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler ; see below for more information).

Sink as art: white when the water is cold.

Turns red when the hot water is on.

I should note these comments are limited to the main MACRO gallery, not MACRO Testaccio.

And we still like the toilets. 


More than all this, it just bugs me that a nasty employee can make me not even want to walk through the exhibit, and affect my attitude towards the art.

Now to those placards only in Italian.  The State's immense modern art gallery, Galleria Nazionale dell'Arte Moderna, just north of the Villa Borghese, has an interesting show on Italian still life in the 20th century, including dozens of unframed paintings (wonder what the artists think of that!), "lesser known works," they acknowledge.  But all of the placards and explanations are in Italian.  Fine for us, but what about the other thousands of tourists who might want to know something about Italian art? We commend the CITY's modern art gallery (Galleria dell'Arte Moderna di Roma Capitale on via F. Crispi - a post will come later) for its excellent dual-language placards.  And the State can't bother?  In this show too, some of the placards were too high to read, and some you had to kneel to read.  Really?  Of course, that's not as bad as the placement of some of the art works - still lifes at 10 feet aren't exactly hung to be viewed.  Get a grip, GNAM!

And, finally, those dang audioguides.  Our last experience with those was at the comprehensive Brueghel family (don't be fooled and think you're going to see a lot of the Brueghel master himself - but you do get Heironymous Bosch's Seven Deadly Sins thrown in - and that's worth it) exhibition at Chiostro Bramante, just off Piazza Navona.  I generally don't like audioguides.  Some tell you what you're looking at ("there's a woman in a red hat" - okay, I can figure that out); some are excruciatingly long and off-point.  And they make the crowds cluster around the paintings they cover.  The text of this audioguide was in fact quite good.  Each piece was under 2 minutes and pointed out things one might not have seen or known.  Still, we were forced to buy the audioguides, because there was virtually no printed text accompanying the exhibit.  If you went in without the audioguide, as we first did, you were completely without context.  And, audioguides make museum going such a solitary experience.  How does one talk to one's companion, when you are always tuned into something, and not necessarily the same thing?  It seems so un-social, compared to reading a placard together and discussing a piece.  Sometimes solitary museum going is what one wants, but one shouldn't be forced into it.

End of diatribe.  Get over it, Dianne!

 Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler  features the 21st-century music and art center of Flaminio, highlighted by MAXXI, along with Mussolini's Foro Italico, also the site of the 1960 summer Olympics, and three other walks: the "garden city" suburb of Garbatella, the 20th-century suburb of EUR, and a stairways walk in classic Trastevere. 

 

This 4-walk book is available in all print and eBook formats The eBook is $1.99 through amazon.com and all other eBook sellers.  See the various formats at smashwords.com. 

Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler now is also available in print, at amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores,  and other retailers; retail price $5.99.

"Extra Large": Big, Bold and Fun Exhibition at MACRO Testaccio

Big Bambu' by Mike and Doug Starn



Good views all around. Dianne, but not Bill, got to the top.

MACRO Testaccio is currently host to "Extra Large," an exhibit featuring big-sized installations and sculptures from Italian collections.  Though not part of the exhibit, a domineering outdoor sculpture by two Americans is extra large as well.  We think this is a very good exhibit, and (which we like) lots of fun:  bring the kids. 

The outdoor sculpture, Big Bambu', is up through this December.  But the basic exhibit, in two of MACRO Testaccio's large pavilions, comes down after May 11.



Signing one's rights away.

Hmm, is this decoration, or will
these really hold this thing together?

First to Big Bambu':  perhaps only in Italy can one climb all over this kind of a structure, and bring along the children!  The only prohibitions - if you are disabled in some way (need canes or other walking aides); and, if you are under 12, you need a parent or guardian along.  Amazing.  We did have to sign a bunch of forms, releasing MACRO from everything happening in the world today, but that was it.  And, it is supposed to be open until late in the evening (as is MACRO Testaccio generally), and lit, but because the lighting system is broken, you can't climb around it after about 6 p.m.  Since MACRO Testaccio doesn't open until 4 p.m., that's a small window of opportunity.




Refrigerator box, helpful employee (someone has to open
the door from the outside!)

"Extra Large" is interesting too, although, frankly, we didn't "get" all the art that's presented - not that that is anything new.  Some of it seems straightforward, and some quite interesting.  A few pieces are somewhat interactive:  You can go into this refrigerated (yes, not just fake) box and sit there staring at levers that say - Danger!  And you can pose with the (former) Pope and other questionable heads of state.



Who doesn't belong in the picture?

Unlike its mother institution, MACRO on via Nizza, MACRO Testaccio's employees are friendly, helpful, and seem to genuinely want to help you enjoy the exhibits.  So go for it!

Dianne

Pompidou Postmodernism--in Rome

Not Columbus, not 1972

Our introduction to postmodernism came, in of all places, Columbus Ohio--not, or not then, a pacesetter in architecture.  We were tourists, and we arranged to eat dinner in one of the city's trendy new restaurants.  The place occupied a long-narrow space several feet below street level, and everything was painted black.  To our surprise, the resturateur and his designer had made only the most minimal effort to cover up the "guts" of the place--the ductwork and electrical cables that made the place function, the old brick.  No lowered ceiling, no styrafoam ceiling panels, no wall paneling.  Painted black, yes, but hardly invisible; indeed, right in your face.  It was 1972 or 1973. 

Pompidou Center

Across the Atlantic, and doubtless unaware of Columbus's early lead in advanced architectural design, Renzo Piano and his colleagues were working on Paris's Pompidou Center.  It would open in 1977 to considerable acclaim and be understood thereafter as a seminal work in the postmodern vein. 

More Pompidou Center

Every pipe and conduit and strut was exposed; indeed, some may have been added for emphasis.  The architectect seemed determined to make a rather ordinary stairway a central feature of the design and "look" of the place. 

The modernists of the 1930s and 1940s had taken a very different approach.  While valuing the technological, machine aesthetic as much as the postmodernists, their interest in speed and movement led designers to give many of their creations rounded features, and to sheath the products they made in sleek skins of metal and plastic. 

Probably a film projector

In this "streamlined" universe, key ingredients of speed and movement--motors and wheels--were hidden away.  The pencil sharpener and the toaster appeared ready to take off. 

By this definition at least, Rome has come late, and barely, to the postmodern revolution.  Renzo Piano was no help.  Although Rome would be the site of one of his best buildings--the Parco della Musica--it shows not a hint of the architect's place in the postmodern pantheon.  Not a duct in sight. 

We've found two examples of what we'll call Pompidou Postmodernism in Rome: one in architecture, the other in product design. 

The beast unveiled

The product is the motorcycle.  Not all of them, by any means; some--perhaps most--have been designed and presented in the modernist mode, or in some combination.  But some, especially the big, muscular cycles with enormous engines--750 and even 1200cc's--could trace their heritage to that Columbus restaurant.  Their huge and complex engines could be covered with plates of steel, but instead they're exposed, letting us know just what it is we're riding, and what makes it go. 

Exposed girders at MACRO

The building we have in mind is one of our favorites: the MACRO gallery, in the Nomentana quartiere.  It's a lovely combination of sleek, curvilinear modernism and defiant Pomidou Postmodernism.

While the bathrooms are aggressively modern--whether they can actually be used, we can't say (oh, yes we can, says Dianne), but they sure look good--that and other modernist flourishes succeed in part because of the postmodern environment in which they're embedded: the exposed steel girders, with bolts and all, there to remind visitors of the brewery that once operated on the grounds.

Revealing glass elevator, Macro

The elevator, its innards in full view, challenging us to accept technology as the complex phenomenon it is; and a sturdy, unpretentious metal stairway that subtly suggests that our fanciful designs--those sleek skins and surfaces--are products of animals who learned to walk upright. 

Bill

For more pictures of MACRO, see an earlier post.

Postmodern muscle

Modern, streamlined muscle

Plastic bags in Rome - one woman's story

This is a remembrance of and for my Dad, who died about a year ago, just 10 days short of his 93rd birthday.  He was a loyal follower of the blog (no, he didn't get Facebook, but he did get the blog). Dad's occupation was "manufacturer of flexible films."  He made plastic bags.  Plastic bags put me through Stanford.

So when we saw this sculpture in the atrium of MACRO last  year, we photographed it for him.  It's comprised solely of plastic bags.  And there is stuff in the catalog about how the artist wants to bring attention to the detritus of plastic bags, and this is a good re-use etc.  What would Dad have thought of that?  Hm, probably not a lot.  He didn't like it that I usually asked for "paper" not "plastic".  But that's a generational thing, and I think he got that.

Dad's small company basically invented the roll bag you see in grocery stores everywhere now. His partner and life-long friend had to convince Safeway to buy a few of the roll bags just to try them out in their produce department.  "Customers will not put their own produce in their own bag," said the Safeway exec.  And then came the order for 5 million bags - more than the small company could possibly handle.  But somehow they did, at the right time for me.  So I thought Dad too would like seeing the version of the roll bag we see in "supermarkets" in Rome. The design (at right) could use some help from Dad.

Dianne

The Building Wars: MAXXI vs MACRO - Rome's Contemporary Art Blockbusters

MAXXI looking good - summer night art work lights up the courtyard,
 and the jutting out window is always captivating

Is Rome's MAXXI – the State’s 21^st century (get the “XXI” in the name?) contemporary art museum all it’s cracked up to be?  Did Starchitect Zaha Hadid do her best work here?
(We thought enough of it to highlight it in one of the ours in our new book, Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler; see below for more information.)

Can MACRO – the City’s contemporary art museum with its dramatic new addition by Odile Decq compete?

What makes a good modern art museum in the 21^st century? 

RST has pondered these questions for some time, esp. since – when we lived in the neighborhood in 2009 and saw it being built - we were initially turned off by Hadid’s monumental concrete bunker.   With a heavy dose of humility (we are not professionals in the art world), we’ve come up with a list of criteria to apply to these two critical museums that opened/reopened in 2010.  After evaluating those criteria and performing a totally unrepresentative sampling of friends and neighbors, [drum roll] the Conclusion: – we still prefer MACRO to MAXXI, but it’s a closer call than we first thought.

Odile Decq's MACRO addition shows off best with this colorful artwork replacing
 a dysfunctional fountain on the roof and shining through to the main floor

Here are our criteria for a new – or newly refashioned with a new addition – modern public art gallery:

Is the building an architectural statement in itself?
     Does it work in its environment – physically is it a good fit? And does it invite the local public?
       Does it provide good and sufficient, logical and exciting space for the art, or is it just about itself?
Is the collection good enough to support the building?
        Are the temporary shows interesting and provocative?
Is the programming embracing?

MAXXI


MAXXI at its worst - concrete bunker and no entrance from the side
 where most people live

MAXXI looking to the back, a year later, opened up and looking better

The building.  No question Hadid’s MAXXI in the Flaminio neighborhood just north of Piazza del Popolo is a blockbuster building with an international draw.  But it’s no Bilbao or Disney Hall (Los Angeles).  We think the internationalistas will not find it interesting for long. It’s just too much concrete; too uninviting – even tho’ it made RST’s Top 40.  And it does not at all fit the neighborhood, in RST’s opinion.  It sits like a colossus without any feeling of the lines of the neighborhood (and no, this wasn’t just a wasteland pre-Hadid).   And it has blocked out the neighbors from access to it much of the time (it’s possible that has changed/is changing).  It IS fun to prance up and down its stairs and ramps and look out the big projecting window.  But it’s also confusing to find any particular gallery or exhibit.  Even many of the employees have no idea where shows are or how to get from point A to point B.  In fact, many times you cannot get from point A to point B without going to ground and starting over (witness the architectural archive area).

It seems to provide good art space, if by that one means big rooms that one can refashion any way one wants, the current trend in art museums, it appears.

Stairways and ramps are seductive, but don't enhance the art much at MAXXI

The collection.  The collection is extraordinary weak; clearly the money ran out.  The temporary shows CAN be good – last year’s focus on art from India (“Indian Highway”), or just ordinary – this year’s homage, from MAXXI’s thin collection, to Marisa Merz (apologies to all feminists), which runs through May 2013.  The architectural shows can be more promising – an initial one on one of our favorites, Luigi Moretti, and last year’s “Verso est [Towards the East]. Chinese Architectural Landscape.”  Or just paltry – a show of the models of the competing plans for the museum itself (on into February 2013); although here one can get a sense of how the board came to pick Hadid’s design – it looks a lot better from a bird’s eye view, smaller, and not in concrete plus you can see the complex would have been another 50% larger (hmmm, would that have been better?).  Another show this summer was of 4 finalists for a competition – how to put on a show for nothing, it appears (closed this past June).  This may be in part because the president of the MAXXI foundation was forced to resign and it has only an acting president at this time.  So nothing new in 2012, it appears.  You can see for yourself on the MAXXI website (there’s an English button too); current and past (archive) shows are described.  MAXXI, btw, stands for Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (“National Museum of 21st Century Arts”), i.e., more contemporary than “modern” and run by the State.

One can't argue with success.  Crowds line up for an evening program at MAXXI

The programming.  Programming gets a higher grade even now – perhaps this was all scheduled before the president departed, but it clearly shows potential.  The pamphlets in each room are excellent.  There are many talks, films, videos, and, of course, parties (you can compare the toilets to MACRO's).  Using the outdoor space in the summer, with some connection to MOMA’s PS 1, has brought in some of the neighborhood.  And, it seems the back side of the museum may actually be open some of the time (and that’s where people live; the front side fronts on a military installation).

Via Guido Reni 4. Open 11-7 Tuesday-Sunday, later (to 10 p.m.) Saturday; Euro 11; buy tickets up to 1 hour before closing; closed May 1, Dec. 25.

MACRO

MACRO's unabashedly postmodern interior

The walkway at MACRO gives great sight lines onto the exhibition below

The building.  We’ve always had a soft spot for MACRO (Museo d’Arte Contemporaneo di Roma, i.e., the City’s (not the State’s) contemporary art museum) because it is a) not too big, b) in a repurposed Peroni beer factory, c) nestled in a real neighborhood, d) adventurous in programming, e) used to be friendly and cheap – 2 Euros (then about $3).  The new addition by Odile Decq definitely entranced us.  Perhaps that’s because we had a hard hat tour, complete with free Campari soda, when it was under construction. But we think it’s more than that.  The addition has an in-your-face postmodern interior.  The suspended walkway in the new main gallery gives onto wonderful views of the artwork in that space (this year, the Neon, on through November 4), much more art-friendly than any of MAXXI’s ramps and stairways.  The addition is playful, it encourages art in interesting spaces (lit up on the high walls, streaming in from the skylight, on top of the auditorium “roof” and on top of its own roof (including a Sten/Lex peel-away graffiti mural), and adds a distinctly modern flavor to the somewhat staid Peroni buildings.  And, did we say the rooftop cafe and bar are great, and well used by the young professionals of Rome?  The view from the bar down the city street is captivating.  MACRO’s location near Porta Pia and Piazza Fiume facilitates its integration with real people and a real neighborhood.  But, one opinion we solicited called Decq’s addition a failure, adding – she said - almost no gallery space for all the money and design.

Exhibit A, the toilet wars: MAXXI's toilet

And, can we add (if we needed a tie-breaker), the restrooms beat MAXXI’s – and we’ve posted on both!

Exhibit B, the toilet wars: MACRO's sinks



The collection.  The shows this summer featured excellent retrospectives of lesser known Rome artists (easier work to come by) Claudio Cintoli (closed Sept. 2) and Vettor Pisani (on through Sept. 23), Open Studios (thank you Dana Prescott for starting this at the American Academy in Rome) with the current slate of artists on through May 2013, and an okay, but not particularly blockbuster show on neon art (again, more retrospective).  So MACRO too suffers from a limited collection. Again, the directorship has been something of a revolving door, esp. with the party of the Mayor changing from left- to right-wing.  (Thanks to Temple professor and Rome art curator (one of the best - go to anything she curates) Shara Wasserman for filling us in on some of these political details.)  We also almost had a fight with a ticket seller here a year ago when he sold us our tickets and THEN told us the new wing, which had been billed as having had its grand opening, was not in fact open and wouldn’t refund our money.  And, this year, the tickets are up to Euro 11 (about $14+), and the ticket sellers are just as unfriendly and unhelpful.   The web site is not too user friendly.  You have to hit the “Menu” button at the bottom to get any categories, and it’s not clear how to get the site in English.)  On a website tiebreaker, MAXXI would win.



Sten/Lex on MACRO's roofop (the face was revealed as the outer layer
 wore off, or was picked off by visitors (including me)

The programming.  Appears weaker than in prior years.  Not much in the way of talks, special showings, events.

Via Nizza 138, open 11-7 Tuesday-Sunday, and until 10 on Saturday (again, get there an hour before closing); closed Jan. 1, May 1, Dec. 25.


AND THE WINNER IS?  For us, MACRO, but we know we’re in the minority and welcome other opinions!

One of MACRO's Open Studios, and one of our favorites

We should point out that, in addition to the revolving directorships, these government-run institutions are suffering like all others in Italy from extreme budget cutbacks.  MACRO may have a better group of wealthy patrons behind it.  In any event, we hope better times are coming.  Perhaps we should just be grateful there is this much contemporary art in publicly-run galleries in Rome.

Dianne

P.S.  2.5 more.   Rome also hosts the State’s “modern” art gallery, GNAM (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna – “National Gallery of Modern Art”).  Modern is used as older than contemporary, in European parlance.  GNAM has the best collection of any of the 3, esp. of 20^th century Italian art.  Its building, constructed in 1911 to host Italy’s first state modern art gallery, is serviceable, but not something to write home about.  It’s situated in “Academy Gulch” – Valle Giulia, behind the Villa Borghese.  Definitely worth a visit. Don’t skip too quickly through the atrium space right behind the ticket counter; it often has the best exhibit.  A fourth public modern art gallery is the City’s modern (as opposed to contemporary – i.e. MACRO) gallery not too far from the Spanish Steps and the Gagosian: Galleria d’Arte Moderna.   Recently reopened after an extensive multi-year remodeling, the current show (through September) is a great showcase of (mainly) 20th Century Italian art.  And one last note – MACRO also hosts MACRO Testaccio in the quarter of that name, in the ex-slaughterhouse, about which we’ve posted several times; though now relegated to special shows (i.e., not open all the time) and events – what there are, however, are excellent, if pricier than in the past.

And for more on MAXXI and the 21st art and cultural quarter of Flaminio, see our new print AND eBook,  Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler.  Along with the tour of Flaminia, that includes Mussolini's Foro Italico, also the site of the 1960 summer Olympics, Modern Rome features three other walks: the "garden" suburb of Garbatella; the 20th-century suburb of EUR, designed by the Fascists; and a stairways walk in classic Trastevere. 

This 4-walk book is available in all print and eBook formats The eBook is $1.99 through amazon.com and all other eBook sellers.  See the various formats at smashwords.com. 

Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler now is also available in print, at amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores,  and other retailers; retail price $5.99.