JOHN CAGE | the silence of the music
emanuel dimas de melo pimenta
curated by lucrezia de domizio durini
MART Contemporary Art Museum of Rovereto and Trento
March 7 | April 30 | 2003

JOHN CAGE - The Silence of the Music
by Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta

the MART building, projected by Mario Botta

MART CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM OF ROVERETO AND TRENTO

THE OPENING OF "MART" IN ROVERETO: PLEASE DON'T CALL IT MUSEUM!

On December 15, the Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Trento and Rovereto is opening a new art center in Rovereto: MART. The new structure which cost 50 million euros is not meant to be just a museum, but also a lab of art and ideas. Its scope in fact is not only to preserve art works: Mart is a place where art can be observed, studied, promoted. A place connected on line with Italian and foreign cultural institutions.

MART has four floors and it stretches over 12,000 square meters: 6,000 of them are dedicated to Twentieth and Twenty-first century art, 4,000 of them are occupied by rooms for researches and didactics. Mart has also a cafeteria, bookshop, a conference room, information desks.

MART already boasts a collection of 7,000 works: paintings, drawings, etchings and sculptures. Noteworthy achievements by Depero, Balla, Prampolini, Marinetti, Sironi, Carrà, De Pisis, Licini and 21 paintings by Morandi. Worth mentioning also the works by De Chirico, Severini, Savinio, Casorati, Mafai. The Abstract Movement is represented by masterpieces by Melotti, Fontana, Burri. On display also the Panza di Piume Collection which includes contemporary art works by American artists such as Peter Shelton, Roni Horn, Lawrence Carrol, Davey Grencille, Meg Webster. In addition in recent years Mart purchased works by Boetti, Merz, Paolini, Scarpitta and Kounillis, artists of the Seventies and Eighties who carried out extremely innovative experiments. As concerns international artists, MART has works by Rainer, Nitsch, Kiefer, Cragg Gursky and achievements by talented new artists such Candida Hofer, Eva Marisaldi and Ryan Mendoza.
Mart is not only art but also books: it owns 60,000 volumes on art history of the Twentieth century. Noteworthy its collection of books on Futurist Art which also includes "book objects" such as the book with bolts by Fortunato Depero.

MART (works lasted seven years) has been sponsored by the Provincia Autonoma di Trento, local museums and bodies in Trentino, and it has been designed by the architect Mario Botta, one of the most important Italian architects who has already planned the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, the Museum Tinguely in Basel and the Friedrich Durrenmatt Center in Neuchatel.

MART is located in the very heart of Rovereto, next to the theater, the library , the Auditorium and Palazzo Alberti which will host the City Gallery of Rovereto.

Further information: Mart, Corso Bettini 43, Rovereto. Info line 800 397760. Mart is open every day from 10 am to 6 pm. (14/11-Italian Network)

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