National Gallery of Modern Art starts relaunch

(ANSA) - Rome, Jun 20 - An exhibition featuring a wide range of photos, sculptures and works of art by young artists alongside works from the permanent collection will on Wednesday usher in a new season in the National Gallery of Modern Art (GNAM).
    Renovations on the historic building almost completed, photos by such artists as Barbara Probst, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Giulia Cenci and Marie Lund will be juxtaposed with works from the museum collection by Alexander Calder, Medardo Rosso and Lucio Fontana. The exhibition will run from June 22 to January 29 and is meant to rebel for the sake of quality "against the trend to hold gigantic exhibitions", said the museum's new director, Cristiana Collu.
    It is also a sort of foreshadowing of a much larger one to be held in October after all the renovation work has been completed. Culture minister Dario Franceschini noted that "large changes are brought in through small steps. Here, in silence, the right direction was taken". "La Galleria Nazionale" aims to attract a huge number of visitors and now has a renovated bookshop and the large Colonne hall offering couches, tables and soon gardens to those passing by, even if they don't visit the museum itself. The renovations by Martì Guixé have brought in a huge amount of light to the monumental entrance and the large halls designed in 1911 by Cesare Bazzani.
    Collu said that the work had been "archaeological" in nature, an attempt to "rediscover its architecture through light and the spaces as conceived by Bazzani in his time". Franceschini underscored that a integrated ticket for both MAXXI and the National Gallery of Modern Art would be available starting on Tuesday.
    The museum in its entirety is expected to open on October 10.