Michelangelo Antonioni is back in Ferrara, the new museum opens tomorrow

Project curated by Dominique Païni, former director of the Cinémathèque française, was developed with input from Vittorio Sgarbi and with the maestro's wife, Enrica Fico Antonioni, by the Art Museums service of the Municipality and by the Ferrara Arte Foundation.

FERRARA – Ferrara tries to reconcile with Michelangelo Antonioni, after almost 30 years of ‘debate’ around the dedicated museum project. After the first opening of the exhibition space in via Ercole I d’Este in 1995 (the year in which the master returned to his city after receiving the Oscar for lifetime achievement), closed in 2006, a stalemate began, shaken only by the exhibition at Palazzo dei Diamanti, in 2013, and from the outbursts on another possible museum at Palazzo Massari, more on cinema in general. Now, the Fabbri council is trying to keep its promises over the years and announces the opening of the “Spazio Antonioni” from tomorrow, June 1st. It is described as a “brand new museum” that “offers the general public and enthusiasts a journey into the intellectual and creative universe of one of the fathers of modern cinematography”.
Spazio Antonioni, which invites “to rediscover the originality and relevance” of the director’s work, is a project curated by Dominique Païni, former director of the Cinémathèque française, and was developed with input from Vittorio Sgarbi and in synergy with the master’s wife, Enrica Fico Antonioni, by the Art Museums service of the Municipality and by the Ferrara Arte Foundation. Structured on two redesigned floors of the former contemporary art pavilion of Palazzo Massari itself, the Spazio Antonioni hosts a selection of the collection of objects and documents that the director and his wife have entrusted to the Municipality.
If the Antonioni archive has over 47,000 pieces, in fact, “the main idea – they explain in the municipal administration – is to create a living museum, a place of training and discovery, where explore the precious testimonies of Antonioni’s work and delve into the many connections with artists, directors and intellectuals who inspired him or who continue to draw nourishment from the master”.

FROM NEOREALISM TO THE TRILOGY WITH MONICA VITTI, BUT NOT ONLY

The museum itinerary develops chronologically by retracing the seasons of Antonioni’s cinema, throughout the second half of the twentieth century: from his debut in the context of neorealism to the overcoming of this season with the films starring Lucia Bosè, up to “modernity trilogy” linked to Monica Vitti (L’avventura, L’eclisse, La notte), then the advent of color in The Red Desert, and then “the conquest of the West” with the Anglo-American films witnessed of the explosion of pop and hippie culture – Blow Up and Zabriskie Point -, and the African escape in Professione: reporter, to conclude with “the return to Italy” and the works that recover the connection with the roots.
A separate chapter is reserved for the director’s pictorial production and the spectacular dreamlike landscapes of the Enchanted Mountains. Finally, a large multipurpose space is dedicated to reviews, meetings, dossier exhibitions in the spirit of dialogue between the arts. The architectural project, signed by the international studio Alvisi Kirimoto, in coordination with the executive design and construction management of the Municipality’s Monumental Heritage Service, therefore envisages “a clear, fluid and dynamic exhibition itinerary that recalls one of the sequence plans” of Antonioni, his trademark.