MUSMA – Museum of Contemporary Sculpture celebrates its 20th anniversary and presents its 2026 programme of activities
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On March 20, 2026, Matera marks a significant moment as it officially begins its journey as Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue. Within this same context, MUSMA launches the celebrations for its twentieth anniversary, a milestone that not only retraces two decades of museum activity, but also looks to the future by adopting “wind” as a metaphor for transformation, regeneration, and rebirth.
Within this framework, Cambiamento (Change) takes shape as a project aimed at reactivating the museum’s permanent collection. The works are not regarded as static entities, but as living organisms, capable of engaging with the present and generating new interpretations and meanings. The intervention is not conceived as a simple restoration, but rather as a process of restoring vitality, placing the installations in direct dialogue with our time.
The project unfolds across three levels of intervention—material, conceptual, and spatial—and involves the artists Alberto Timossi, Agnese Purgatorio, and Giovanni Gaggia, invited to carry out a creative regeneration of the works. Their contributions go beyond merely updating existing pieces; instead, they stimulate their evolution, producing layers of meaning and building a bridge between the museum space and collective memory.
The dialogue is further expanded through the collaboration with Moroccan artist Hassan Echair who, in synergy with MOON in Potenza and Biblioteca Errante, will create the Babelic Atlas dedicated to Tétouan. Together with Matera, Tétouan will be one of the two cities at the center of the Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue. For five days, the artist will be in residence in Matera, moving through the city and gathering traces, impressions, and materials for the creation of the work. At the end of the residency, Echair will leave a tangible trace of his presence within MUSMA, establishing a direct connection between the artist, the city, and the museum.
Alongside this project, an unpublished sculpture by Carlo Levi, on loan from his Foundation, interprets the Mediterranean as a space where separation and connection coexist: Ritratto di donna (Portrait of a Woman) becomes a symbol of collective identity, freedom, and the complexity of the modern world.
A further significant element is the exhibition of the Lagorio Collection, which interweaves ideas, eras, and cultures into a continuous artistic narrative. As an integral part of the permanent collection, the museum will acquire new artists and works from the Lagorio family, to rethink MUSMA as a space where memory is constantly regenerated through new artistic perspectives.
From September to December 2026, MUSMA will host the temporary exhibition Nanni Valentini. Face and Place, dedicated to the material heads and faces shaped by Nanni Valentini. The works will enter into dialogue with Il Focolare, a piece belonging to the museum’s permanent collection, and with the local tuff stone, giving rise to a sensory experience that brings historical material and contemporary experimentation into relation.
The theme of the house, together with that of the hearth, represents the highest point of Nanni Valentini’s artistic reflection on the idea of place. This interweaving celebrates the ability of matter to evoke deep memories, as well as the central role of the face as an element of identity within the collective imagination.
Through these initiatives, MUSMA affirms itself as a living, dynamic, and constantly evolving laboratory. Through Cambiamento, the museum traces an ongoing trajectory between permanence and transformation, between past and future, reflected in the Sassi of Matera and in the stories they hold. A process that places culture at the centre as a living space of dialogue.
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