The new temporary exhibition of the “Domenico Ridola Archaeological Museum of Matera”.

On Friday 23 February 2018, at 7.00 pm, the new temporary exhibition will be inaugurated with the start of the renovation project of the Domenico Ridola Archaeological Museum of Matera, which Regional Museum Complex of Basilicata intends to share with the Matera community in the context of a path of involvement and participation that will take place in the course of 2019 to define together the ‘form’ of the city museum.

The archaeological museum of Matera is the oldest state museum in Basilicata: established in 1911 inside the former Convent of the Poor Clares, it is named after its founder, Senator Domenico Ridola [1841-1932], doctor, politician and archaeologist, who in 1910 had donated to the state his important collections of naturalistic materials, ethnographic objects, artistic testimonies and above all precious archaeological finds, mostly prehistoric documents, coming from the excavations he himself conducted in the territory of Matera.

These collections constitute the first nucleus of the museum’s extraordinary heritage, which then grew during the following decades thanks to research, discoveries, excavations and discoveries in the territory of Matera [started by Ridola in the seventies of the nineteenth century and continued up to our days], which give back important traces of an uninterrupted and millennial archaeological event, from prehistory to early history up to the historical age, rich in evidences and documents of rare interest.

Directed up to 1961 by Eleonora Bracco, who commissioned the first interventions on the convent complex to arrange the numerous materials in a more articulate manner, the museum was later extended between the Sixties and the Seventies by the first Archaeological Superintendent of Basilicata, Dinu Adamesteanu, with which began to take shape that modern institution that, in the intentions of its creators, should have focused on the history of Matera and its territory.

Between the Eighties and the Nineties, thanks to the FIO funds and the engineer Corazza project, a second important project was carried out, which provided the museum with new spaces, initially destined for collections and temporary exhibitions, inside a building built in the back part of the Clarisse garden. Over the years, different ostensive visions have changed the original design, making the story of the museum ever less readable, well guided by the Superintendency.

In December 2015, following the Franceschini Reform, the museum was assigned to Regional Museum Complex of Basilicata that decided to focus on the renovation of the Ridola structure and mission, promoting a strategic path whose first step is precisely the new temporary exhibition .

“The ‘simple’ idea that guides this setup – said Marta Ragozzino, Director of the Regional Museum Complex of Basilicata – is to chronologically rearrange the exhibited materials, integrating them to fill the major gaps and accompanying the new path, which will reserve many surprises, with a linear, accessible and welcoming story that makes all the contents and history of the museum comprehensible. A modern story, suitable for an audience with different needs, with an innovative graphic project of great communicative value [as well as aesthetic impact]. A new photographic apparatus created ad hoc with the help of the most modern technologies has the task of better contextualizing the different archaeological areas ».

“It was necessary to refresh the walls and illuminate the rooms – continues the Director – to give breath to exceptional memories that must become more and more common heritage, to better tell the stories of people and things, important for the whole community, that in his museum must be able to find and recognize “.

The Ridola museum will be home to the first major exhibition of Matera-Basilicata 2019, Ars Excavandi for the care of Pietro Laureano. And it will be one of the privileged places of the cultural production of our city. He had to prepare for the appointment, with so much light, new colors and above all a great message of openness and invitation.

The museum will be inaugurated at the same time as the exhibition Trecento ’19 Duemila ’19 edited by Gianluigi Colin and Antonio Troiano and produced together with the Corriere della Sera Foundation and the Matera-Basilicata 2019 Foundation and set up a large central hall on the first floor. On display 319 covers of the author of “La Lettura”, the weekly supplement of the Corriere della Sera dedicated to books and cultural styles, which resumed publication from 2011.

It will be an opportunity to make a great journey into contemporary art: from the first issue, “La Lettura” has entrusted its covers to the major artists of the international scene, from Ai Weiwei to Armin Linke, via Anselm Kiefer, Damien Hirst, Vanessa Beecroft, Ettore Spalletti, Mimmo Paladino and many others. Painters, sculptors, photographers, architects, performers, committed to creating a picture gallery without walls capable of entering the homes of readers and helping to define the concept of contemporary.

We are looking forward to all those who have worked in an extraordinary way to realize this important exhibition [experts, professionals, suppliers, colleagues] and to the curators of the exhibition “La Lettura”, for this new challenging initiative, an important step towards Matera- Basilicata European Capital of Culture 2019.

The exhibition can be visited until 23 April 2018, during museum opening hours: Monday: h. 14.00 – 20.00 [closed in the morning hours]; Tuesday to Sunday: h. 9.00 – 20.00.

For info and reservations: + 39 0835 310058.