Carrara’s mudaC

Housed in a 16th-century convent structure, the mudaC (Museo delle arti Carrara), is the centerpiece of initiatives in the arts in Carrara, a Unesco creative city and candidate for Italy’s contemporary art capital for 2026.

The former convent of San Francesco, enlarged several times between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, experienced alternating fortunes, eventually being used as a barracks, hospital and schoolhouse. A long restoration, followed by a phase of complete abandonment, returned the structure to the city with the opening of the CAP (Center for Plastic Arts), on the occasion of the 12th edition of the Carrara Sculpture Biennial, in 2006. The intent was to enhance the municipal art collection, composed mostly of works created for the various editions of the Biennale (whose first edition dates back to 1957), and offer a place for exhibitions and cultural meetings.

The permanent collection was finally sorted into a new arrangement, presented to the public in 2022, while the center took on the name mudaC, following its prestigious recognition as a museum of regional significance (2020).

The historical collection brings together works from the first seven biennials (1957-1973), in an itinerary that aims to create a dialogue between the sculptures in marble, stone, plaster, bronze, steel and concrete, and the Renaissance architecture of the complex.

After a long hiatus, the Carrara Biennial resumed vigor in 1996, remaining a fixture until 2010, with the 14th edition (“Post Monument”), curated by Fabio Cavallucci, closing this second season of the historic event. The second section of the mudaC (Contemporary Collection) is dedicated to this phase, while the “Drawing Marble” collection bears witness to the success of the exhibition of the same name organized by the Municipality of Carrara (2004-2005), in which a large group of artists, architects, photographers and designers were called upon to measure themselves against a single format, a 150x200cm slab of marble, with freedom of expressive medium.

The ensemble succeeds in documenting, in an articulate manner, the evolution of artistic languages in the second half of the twentieth century, documenting the contamination between techniques in the expressive research centered on the material marble, and providing the main coordinates to orient oneself in the debate that has opened in recent decades on the relationship between sculpture and space.

Among the artists represented are Augustin Cardenas, Nardo Dunchi, Gigi Guadagnucci, Angelo Mangiarotti, Augusto Perez, Sergio Signori, David Tremlett, Giuliano Vangi, Alberto Viani, Ogata Yoshin and many others.

Completing the collection are three important works, “The Exceptional Objects,” which punctuate the museum’s itinerary: the central courtyard is occupied by an imposing environmental sculpture (Untitled, 2006) by Jannis Kounellis, made of iron and steel cables, created for the 12th Biennale, while on the second floor to strike the imagination is Fabio Viale’s Aghalla (2003), a marble boat capable of sailing with three passengers on board. A video documents the public performance by which the artist launched and floated his creation. The filmic installation Il Capo (2010), by Yuri Ancarani, on the other hand, is a fifteen-minute short film in which we follow the silent movements of a quarry boss, intent on directing work in a quarry in Bettogli, in the mountains of Carrara .

The mudaC hosts (since 2018), artist residencies, with the aim of artists’ involvement in the creative experience of local workshops, but also to implement the permanent collections.

The Project room space, on the other hand, came into being in 2023, with the idea of opening a channel of dialogue with the community of artists residing in the city, and provides quarterly interventions in line with the indications contained in the “Charter on Art and Crafts as Tools for Sustainable Urban Development,” conceived by the network of Unesco creative cities, brought together in a Creativity Forum held in Carrara in 2021.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, hosts regular exhibitions and events, and organizes educational workshops for teens and children (from kindergarten onward): hours and info at www.mudac.museodellearticarrara.it