Mother Museum of Naples, the name of Mario Codognato appears

The Madre-Donnaregina Museum of Contemporary Art in Naples changed the statute and outlawed the post of the new director, no longer artistic but a manager whose curriculum vitae must also have knowledge and skills in cultural marketing, communication and digital innovation, according to the public notice published on 20 October. After just a month, the deadline for submitting applications closed last Monday at 4pm and no names were disclosed by the Donna Regina Foundation for contemporary arts which manages the Museum. It is only known that the commission is already working on the choice of the new managerial figure. The times in which an artistic director remained in office for a decade, with a contract renewed directly by the Board of Directors of the Foundation, as happened for Andrea Villanidirector from 2012 until the arrival of Kathryn Weir, the outgoing artistic director who took office in January 2020, arriving directly from the Center Pompidou in Paris and whose mandate is about to expire. Naturally, nothing prevents Weir from being among the new candidates to be hired – always according to the announcement, published on the websites of the Madre and the Campania Region but not advertised – with fixed-term contract for 3 years but at the moment a changeover seems more than likely.

The profile

Only name leaked that of Mario Codognatoand for the Foundation a director like him could represent the era of the Risorgimento, look to the future with a figure of great depth, who has already been there at the Madre. Codognato, in fact, was chief curator at the time of the direction of Eduardo Cicelyn, with which he effectively set up the Museum, also organizing important retrospectives, such as those of Kounellis, Manzoni, Fabro. After the experience of the Mother, Codognato was chief curator at the 21er Haus of the Belvedere in Vienna until 2016 and since then of the Anish Kapoor Foundation. An international figure with strong relationships with the art world, who would certainly be able to build a new permanent collection, even if sufficient resources were lacking. However, we are in the field of hypotheses: the competition for director arrives, as we said, after the new modification of the Statute, already modified in 2020, and registered just two days before the announcement, on 18 October 2022. In the new version, it diversifies and branches out the broad powers of the board while the nominations for director will be examined by an unusually majority jury made up of internal members.