MART - Museo Trento e Rovereto

Profile

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, the Mart, is located in Trentino, in northern Italy, and is one of the most important italian museums. Its large complex has been designed by the swiss architect Mario Botta, together with the Rovereto engineer Giulio Andreolli, and inaugurated in Rovereto on 15 December 2002.

Mart has seen 1,5 million of visitors to date, and has produced original and innovative exhibitions - such as "Mountain art science myth", "The dance of the avant-gardes", "The Word in Art", "The Century of Jazz" or "Futurism 100"; exhibitions on Italian artists such as Medardo Rosso, Luigi Russolo, Thayaht, Fausto Melotti , Mario Sironi , Carol Rama,Alighiero Boetti, Vincenzo Agnetti; solo shows of leading international artists such as Douglas Gordon; and constant research in the worlds of design, applied arts and contemporary art.

The Mart has also increased over the years its commitment on a series of exhibitions abroad, focused on making best use of its own collections. In 2005, Mart organised the "Futurism 20th Century Abstraction" exhibition at the Hermitage in St Petersburg, and in 2006 "Italia nova. An adventure in Italian art", at the Grand Palais , Paris. Also in 2006, Mart was invited to present an exhibition on 20th-century Italian art the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, and subsequently in Canton, at the Guangdong Museum of Art. In 2009, Mart produced a ground breaking exhibition devoted to Giorgio Morandi at the Phillips Collection of Washington, D.C.

The Mart's valuable permanent collection comprises of more than 13,000 paintings, drawings and sculptures, and has been built up over the years through acquisitions, donations, and bequests from important private collections. A large part of the collection is devoted to Futurism. Indeed, the Mart possesses more than 3,000 works - drawings, paintings, sculptures and tapestries - bequeathed to the museum by the artist Fortunato Depero.
Italian twentieth-century art is represented by masterpieces by Osvaldo Licini, Mario Sironi , Massimo Campigli , Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà , and an important group of paintings by Giorgio Morandi .

The Mart is not just a conservation body but also, and above all, a 'cultural laboratory'. Its exhibition activity is closely linked to that of conservation, study, development, and research through the promotion of conventions, study days, seminars, conferences, and the programming of editorial initiatives about the study of archival sources. The exhibition area covers some 5,600 square metres and occupies the second and third floors of the building.

The Mart Education Department receives about 70,000 visitors a year (school parties and the general public) in its laboratories, for guided visits, art and history of art courses, as well as refresher courses for teachers.