ROME.- MAXXI keeps expanding its international network. The museum’s Board of Directors, presided over by Pio Baldi and composed of Roberto Grossi and Stefano Zecchi, has appointed Bartomeu Marì, Director of Barcelona’s MACBA, to the Foundation’s Advisory Board.

Marì replaces Carlos Basualdo – the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art – who has taken on the additional role of Curator-at-Large for MAXXI Arte. Pippo Ciorra – architect, critic and university lecturer – will instead serve as Senior Curator for MAXXI Architettura.

“MAXXI is itself both dynamic and innovative, and certainly requires a program capable to respond to this extraordinary stimulus. The challenge is to imagine how the program implicit in the building could be mapped upon the fields of art, performance and new media. We want the visitors to have an experience of art that is enriching, specific and particular”. -Carlos Basualdo.

“Contemporary architecture needs MAXXI for at least three reasons: in order to encourage dialogue with other forms of expression, in particular art, because MAXXI must be a platform open to discussion with the city, the nation and the world and thirdly because architecture is in a particularly critical phase of its history and institutions such as MAXXI can and must help it rethink both its present and its future.-Pippo Ciorra.

CARLOS BASUALDO - Since 2005, Carlos Basualdo has served as the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He oversees the Museum's contemporary collection while also developing temporary exhibitions. In 2006, he initiated two exhibition series at the Museum called “Notations” and “Live Cinema,” both of which are devoted to the permanent collection and video. He was the lead organizer of “Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens” that represented the United States at the 2007 Venice Biennale, where it was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. He is currently organizing a survey exhibition of the work of the Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, scheduled for the Fall of 2010. Since 2004, Basualdo has taught a course on the history of exhibitions at the IUAV University in Venice, and since 2006 he is a member of the Advisory Board of the PhD program at the VIU, also in Venice. He has was a part of the curatorial teams for Documenta11, the 50th Venice Biennale and conceived and curated “Tropicalia: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture,” which traveled from MCA Chicago to the Barbican Gallery in London (2004/2005) as well as the Bronx Museum in New York and the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro (2006/2007).

PIPPO CIORRA – Architect, critic and lecturer at the Ascoli Piceno Faculty of Architecture of the University of Camerino, Pippo Ciorra also contributes to architectural magazines, daily newspapers and national radio stations. He is part of the editorial board of Casabella and the author of critical monographs and essays. His recent works include the Biology Laboratories at Camerino and the extension currently underway of the National Archaeological Museum of Ascoli Piceno. He has curated and presented exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, the Casa dell’Architettura and MAXXI in Rome and the Palazzo degli Anziani in Ancona. Among his most recent books is Museums. Next Generation, published by Electa in 2006.