Museum opens to foster Italian city's rebirth after earthquake, pandemic

File photo taken on April 22, 2021 shows a view inside of the National Museum of 21st Century Arts (MAXXI) in L'Aquila, Italy. (Photo by Agostino Osio/Xinhua)

L'AQUILA, Italy, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Italy's National Museum of 21st Century Arts (MAXXI) opened a new outpost in central L'Aquila on Sunday, in a major effort to foster the cultural rebirth of a city that re-emerged slowly from the devastation caused by a major earthquake in 2009.

Across the elegant rooms of 18th-century Palazzo Ardinghelli -- also badly damaged in the quake and restored by the Culture Ministry -- the MAXXI L'Aquila displayed new artworks of contemporary artists and some 60 pieces selected from the museum's permanent collection in Rome.

The inaugural exhibition -- "Point of Equilibrium" -- is devoted to late Italian minimalist sculptor and painter Ettore Spalletti, and included works from Italian and international protagonists of the art scene including painter Michelangelo Pistoletto, Japanese architect Toyo Ito, South African artist William Kentridge and Magnum photojournalist Paolo Pellegrin.

The city is a focus of the entire project, the new branch's director Bartolomeo Pietromarchi explained.

"This has been a key factor for us, because we think the value of a contemporary art museum also lies in (its ability to boost) urban requalification," Pietromarchi told Xinhua.

"Yet, this would not be enough ... We do not want MAXXI L'Aquila to be just a showcase of the works we have in the museum in Rome; we want to make it a new space for research and cultural production," he said.

The new branch is expected to contribute to the true revival of the city and the surrounding Abruzzo region, where the quake-related scars to the medieval architecture once shaping its beauty, and the wounds to its social fabric have taken a long time to heal.

The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake was felt throughout central Italy with more than 300 people being killed.

The new museum was ready to open last year to mark the 10th anniversary of the MAXXI, but then the coronavirus pandemic struck.

"The Point of Equilibrium is a statement: it holds ethical and aesthetic, political and social significance," Pietromarchi told reporters. "In a period of great unrest, emergencies, drama, uncertainty and confusion, art helps us find a point of balance."

With its main venue in Rome designed by world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid, the MAXXI is Italy's most important public institution entirely devoted to contemporary arts.

The management pledged to pay special attention to "Italian art in the global context" in the future programming at the MAXXI L'Aquila and to the specific artistic value of the current collection, Italy's Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said when addressing the formal inauguration ceremony on Friday.

"Here we have extraordinary pieces, some of them contributed by gifted artists'... and some coming from the MAXXI in Rome and that will change in rotation in the future," Franceschini said. "This will hopefully add another good reason to visit L'Aquila."

The Culture Ministry agreed to provide a 2-million-euro (2.44-million-U.S.-dollar) contribution per year to the museum, which will offer free entrance to all residents of L'Aquila and the Abruzzo region until the end of 2021.