Spazio Antonioni

Starting from June 1st, the Spazio Antonioni, a permanent museum, will open to the public. This museum brings to light part of the 47,000 items - including documents, films, and much more - that the Ferrara-born director Michelangelo Antonioni donated to his hometown in the mid-1990s

The two small and sober symmetrical buildings located in the inner garden of the Galleries of Modern and Contemporary Art, once pavilions for stables and carriages, complete the ancient complex of Palazzo Massari, including the adjoining park. This park is known from historical documents for its rich flora and the numerous statues that adorned its 'romantic' pathways.

The brand-new museum offers the general public and enthusiasts a journey into the intellectual and creative universe of one of the fathers of modern cinema. The main idea is to create a living museum, a place of learning and discovery, where visitors can explore the precious testimonies of Antonioni's work and delve into the numerous connections with the works of artists, directors, and intellectuals who inspired him or continue to draw inspiration from the master.

The two completely redesigned floors of the former Pavilion of Contemporary Art in Palazzo Massari, house a selection of the extraordinary collection of objects and documents that the Municipality of Ferrara acquired directly from Antonioni and Enrica Fico. This archive, consisting of over 47,000 items, has been the subject of an ambitious research and cataloging project (accessible on the platform www.archivioantonioni.it). It provides a unique testimony to the aesthetic and intellectual horizon of the director, allowing visitors to delve into his cinema and, more broadly, into all his activities, including critical, literary, and artistic endeavors. The collection includes films, posters, original scripts, set photographs, Antonioni's drawings and paintings, his library and private record collection, awards, and correspondence with major figures of the past century's cultural life. This valuable heritage will be enriched with sequences from Antonioni's films and comparisons with visual works that inspired him, starting with the work of Italian masters such as Morandi, Filippo de Pisis, and Alberto Burri.

The narrative unfolds chronologically, exploring the seasons of Antonioni's cinema throughout the second half of the 20th century, from the decline of neorealism to the so-called "trilogy of modernity," from Anglo-American films that witnessed the explosion of pop and hippy culture to the return to origins and the Italian and Ferrara artistic tradition.