Mart’s Council Board appoints the new Director
Mart
Corso Bettini 43
38068 Rovereto
Italy
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday
10am–6pm, Friday 10am–9pm
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info [at] mart.trento.it
The new Director of Mart, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rovereto has been appointed on February 26, 2015.
The choice hasn’t been easy and the members of the Council Board: Ilaria Vescovi, President; Matteo Lunelli, Vice-President; Stefano Andreis and Maria Concetta Mattei, have unanimously elected Gianfranco Maraniello, whose carrier profile has been undoubtedly considered the most suitable out of 128 submissions. Ilaria Vescovi explained that “dozens of Italian and foreign candidates were interviewed, all with diverse and outstanding competences, giving us the opportunity to exchange a stimulating and interesting dialogue, to see Mart with the eyes of professional experts.” “We choose a candidate with undisputed managerial and scientific professional competences—added Matteo Lunelli—Gianfranco Maraniello, an accomplished, solid and collaborative figure, has accepted with enthusiasm to receive Mart’s challenges and to help build its future. Gianfranco Maraniello declared: “I’m very honored and enthusiastic to participate at such an important and prestigious cultural project like Mart. I feel it’s a great responsibility and I want to thank the President and the Council Board for carefully evaluating my competences.” Gianfranco Maraniello will take office at Mart on June 1 and will be in charge for five years.
Born in 1971, he has a Master’s degree in Philosophy and a long experience as curator and manager of public museums: after contributing to the opening of Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena, and Macro the museum of contemporary art in Rome, he became director of GAM, the modern art gallery in Bologna in 2005, he then transformed in 2007 with a complete new project and renamed MAMbo, the museum of modern art. He was re-appointed four times as director, and since 2013 he also became director of all civic museums in Bologna and manager of Art City, a series of programs of art events linked to Arte Fiera in Bologna. As Director of MAMbo and Museo Morandi he managed to develop a vast network of International relations and his collaboration with important museums worldwide resulted in the coproduction of the highly successful exhibit Morandi 1890–1964 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2008. His projects have been awarded prices such as the Blinky Palermo Prize, with Francesco Vezzoli and the Hiroshima Prize, with Cai Guo Qiang. He has organized various exhibitions in Italy and abroad like the Shanghai Biennale of Art in 2006.
Under his direction MAMbo Museum in Bologna has hosted important exhibitions like Vertigo, (from Picasso, Braque, Klee, Magritte, Lèger, Depero, Balla, Duchamp to contemporary art); La Grande magia, a journey starting from antique art, through Klimt, the historical avant-gardes and the beginning of photography to the last generation’s masters, and also monographic projects about Filippo de Pisis, Marino Marini and Giorgio De Chirico; solo exhibitions of Italian: Giovanni Anselmo, Luigi Ontani, Giuseppe Penone, Mario Ceroli, and international artists: Bernd & Hilla Becher, Marcel Broodthaers, Bas Jan Ader, as well as others that in the meantime received worldwide acclaim like Wade Guyton/Kelly Walker, Sarah Morris, Tacita Dean, Rachel Whiteread, Ryan Gander, Christopher Williams and many more.
Gianfranco Maraniello is a member of AMACI (Italian Contemporary art Museum Association) Board of Governors with “governance and institutional policies” proxy, of the Scientific Committee of LUISS Master of Art, and of the Scientific Committee of “Farnesina Art Collection,” the Ministry of Italian Foreign Affairs.
