Modern architecture in Rome fascinates me. Maybe because I like contradictions: at first sight, contemporary design seems so out of place between the beautiful, centuries-old palazzi. But when you look closer, you see the combination of old and new actually makes sense. Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo (MAXXI) must be my favourite.
Seeing as I live in the same neighbourhood, you’ll find me at MAXXI at least once a week. Not just to visit the exhibitions but also to have a coffee in the bar, buy an original present in the design shop or work in the restaurant area or library. Not a museum lover? Let me give you 4 reasons to go anyway.
Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo (MAXXI)
Via Guido Reni, 4A | Roma
06 320 1954
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Tu – Su | 11:00 – 19:00
Mo | closed
Admission ticket € 12
1. Its architecture is a piece of art in itself
The first thing that stands out, of course, is the impressive architecture of the museum with its composition of fluid shapes and hard angles. Both inside and outside, flows and pathways of glass, steel and concrete overlap and connect different parts of the museum with each other.
The brain behind MAXXI’s design is the inspiring British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004 (Nobel Prize of architecture) and one of the most influential architects of our times. She died of a heart attack just a few years after MAXXI was finished. Explaining her idea behind the MAXXI, she stated that a museum should “not be an object-container, but rather a campus for art, an immersive urban environment where ideas can be exchanged”.
2. Its souvenir shop is a must-visit for design lovers
If you love design, MAXXI is a must-visit. Not just for its changing exhibitions, but more so for Booktique (the museum’s gift shop). It sells a great selection of books about architecture, design and art, but also cool bags, accessories, sun glasses, mugs, posters and more.
I personally love their collection of Seletti home accessories, such as the famous banana and mouse lamps. If you’re looking for an original gift for a friend or a cool souvenir to take back home, this is the place to go. What about a recycled water bottle with on the back a list of drinking fountains in Rome where you can fill it?
3. The exhibitions have something to offer for every taste
MAXXI always hosts a selection of exhibitions: from photography to installation art and from fashion to paintings. At the moment, for example, the expo ‘At Home’, about contemporary housing (such as the Bosco Verticale in Milan and Casa Baldi by Paolo Portoghesi in Rome) is my personal favourite. I also love the photos by Paolo di Paolo from the fifties, that were recently added to the museum’s permanent collection and can be seen on the ground floor. You might not always love everything on display, but thanks to the diversity in their collection, there will always be something that interests you.
4. It’s not just a museum
The reason Zaha Hadid’s design works so well, is that MAXXI isn’t just a museum where people come to visit an art exhibition: Piazza Alighiero Boetti, the square that divides MAXXI’s main building and the rest of the structure, has really become part of the neighbourhood. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, you’ll find lots of families with kids playing outside as well as couples enjoying a coffee in the sun. I personally visit the modern, luminous library quite a lot because it’s a great place to work and study (and a yearly subscription only costs 5 euros). The museum also hosts a number of concerts and other performances on the square regularly, inviting an audience that normally wouldn’t visit the museum.
All images © 2019 Liza Karsemeijer
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