Bucket list: Rome

The Maxxi Museum, home to some of my favorite architecture and design exhibitions over the years, has a double whammy in store. Today they open the Giacomo Balla house in Rome, Casa Balla, with an ancillary exhibition curated by Domitilla Dardi on its importance at the museum itself.

For those who are fans of Futurism (and few aren't), this is a red letter day.

I’m always taken with artist’s homes (see my recent posts on Lee Miller, Barbara Hepworth and forthcoming on Leonora Carrington) which are generally my go-to sites when traveling. They tell tales about artists that exhibitions cannot: the cup and saucer by the sink, the books in the library, the bedroom where the late nights or early mornings brought inspiration or, sometimes, despair.

Balla was surrounded by talented women: his wife Elisa, his two daughters Luce and Elica. Their spirit is also present. Like Charleston House in England, the home to the Bloomsbury group, the house is a 'gesamtkunstwerk", a deep, family, dive into all aspects of Balla's futurist theories and artifacts. These ideas about the future are made solid in collaborations with tapestry, drawings, sketches, furniture and furnishings. Of course a Balla painting for me is still the ultimate, but now we have a way of understanding the application to the decorative and domestic arts.

Contemporary artists are also in dialogue with Balla at at the museum but I am especially looking forward to seeing the companion film of Beka and Lemoine which investigates the house from their own perspective. You can get info at the Maxxi site www.maxxi.art - info (please, Italy, open!)

Image courtesy Maxxi Museum