The Biennale delle Arti AMA (Art + Maddaloni + Architecture), a festival strongly desired by the Municipality of Maddaloni, under the artistic direction of Luca Molinari, dedicated to the urban and cultural regeneration of the city through art, design and contemporary architecture, is born in Maddaloni, a historic town in the province of Caserta.
The first edition of AMA will be held from 28 March to 21 April 2025, and will transform the streets and historic places of Maddaloni into an exhibition stage for 80 protagonists including artists, architects, photographers and designers of national and international fame. The inaugural theme, ‘New Tales (for the Future)’, invites visitors to explore original visions for an era in transformation and will also be explored with 10 events including exhibitions, installations and performances.
The Biennale delle Arti AMA (Art + Maddaloni + Architecture) will represent an innovative cultural format capable of bringing together some of the best expressions of contemporary arts and architecture, inaugurating an unprecedented dialogue between the most significant experiences of the present time and the millenary history of the Maddalonese land.
The AMA festival renews the city’s creative spirit, continuing the legacy of the International Graphics Biennial of 1985 and 1988, dedicated to the memory of Franco Imposimato, killed in Maddaloni in a Mafia ambush. ‘Art against all mafias’ is indeed the ambitious and concrete objective of the festival almost forty years later.
The project aims to promote culture as a tool for social, economic and urban regeneration, consolidating Maddaloni as a centre of artistic and architectural production.
As a preview of the Biennial, in October 2024, during Art Days week, the mural ‘Senza Riparo’ (Without Shelter) by Argentinean artist Francisco Bosoletti was inaugurated in Piazza Matteotti, on the wall of the future seat of the Maddaloni Town Hall. The work is inspired by the city’s historical finds, in a dialogue between past and future.
Historical and public spaces in the city will host the initiatives, temporary exhibitions and installations. Places deserving ‘new attention’ such as the Complesso Monumentale Convitto Nazionale ‘Giordano Bruno’ with its monumental hall decorated with the largest canvas in the world, or the Civic Museum and, again, the Municipal Library and some precious sacred buildings such as the Church of Santa Maria dei Comandati, the Churchyard of the Church of San Pietro, the Church and Congrega di San Giovanni, the Cloister of the Church of Santissima Annunziata.
Each identified space will be linked to a title and an action like a multi-chapter book in which the key words (e.g. inhabit, regenerate, sow, dream, resist…) will correspond to carefully selected installations/exhibitions/works.
AMA will offer informative and historical content on the monuments and places of Maddaloni, produced in collaboration with the Department of Architecture and Design of the University of Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’, which will remain as useful material (physical and digital) for the municipality even after the event. Moreover, it will leave resistant artefacts in the territory: set-up elements for modules that can be assembled, aggregated and reused over time.
At each edition, a work of art will remain as a testimony of the festival, contributing, biennial after biennial, to create an artistic heritage that will enrich the city’s cultural offer.
The AMA visual identity project is signed by the Bluelabs agency, which has interpreted the values of the event by reconciling tradition and innovation, combining refinement and dynamism to tell the story of the life and energy of the new Maddaloni Biennial.
The Biennial of Arts AMA (Art + Maddaloni + Architecture) is a project promoted by the Municipality of Maddaloni, curated by Luca Molinari, architect, professor of Architectural Theory and Design at the University of Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’ and organised with the collaboration and support of the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design, University of Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’, the Order of Architects Planners Landscape Conservators of the province of Caserta, the Order of Architects Planners Landscape Conservators of the province of Naples and FAI Campania.
The artists and architects involved who will participate in the first edition of AMA are:
aidnastudios, Carmen Andriani, Teresa Antignani, Roberto Amoroso, Archea associati, Carmelo Baglivo, Claudio Bertorelli (Aspro Studio), Gianfranco Bombaci e Matteo Costanzo (2A+P/A), Francisco Bosoletti, BRH+, Mauro Bubbico, Lorenzo Capobianco, Renato Capozzi, Pasquale Carangelo, Orazio Carpenzano, Matilde Cassani, Roberto Cesaretti, Gianluca Cioffi, Maria Claudia Clemente e Francesco Isidori (Labics), Elena Cutolo, Michele De Lucchi, Roberto di Alicudi, Corrado Di Domenico, ĒTER, Alberto Ferlenga, Mario Ferrara, Adam Nathaniel Furman, Luca Galofaro, Cherubino Gambardella, Maria Gelvi, Alfonso Giancotti, Matteo Ghidoni (Salotto Buono), Alberto Iacovoni (ma0), Fabrizia Ippolito e Ilenia Mariarosaria Esposito, Francesco Jodice, Johansen Skovsted arkitekter, Bernard Khoury, Ugo La Pietra, Luca Lanini, Francesco Librizzi, Astrid Luglio, Sara Marini, Antonio Martiniello (Keller Architettura), Antimo Matano, Giancarlo Mazzanti (El Equipo Mazzanti), Donatella Mazzoleni, Annalisa Metta e Felice Cimatti, Valerio Morabito, Simona Ottieri, Adrian Paci, Angela Palumbo e Luisa Parisi, Paradigma Ariadné, Pietro Carlo Pellegrini, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli (2050+), Périphériques Architectes, Marco Pignetti, Carmine Piscopo e Daniela Buonanno, Efisio Pitzalis, Franco Purini, raumlabor, Filippo Romano, Angelica Sylos Labini e Nicola Russi (Laboratorio Permanente), Salon Alper Derinbogaz, Maria Antonietta Santangelo, Caterina Sbrana e Gabriele Mallegni (Studio17), Beniamino Servino, Studio L A, Studio Ossidiana, Superflex con KWY.studio, Concetta Tavoletta, Marina Tornatora e Ottavio Amaro, Mario Trimarchi, Zeynep Tumertekin, Fabrizio Vatieri, Federica Visconti, We Made That.
Info and programme updates on www.amamaddaloni.it
BIENNIAL OF ARTS AMA (ART + MADDALONI + ARCHITECTURE)
Maddaloni, 28 March > 21 April 2025
Project promoted by the Municipality of Maddaloni
Artistic Direction Luca Molinari
Friday 28 March 2025
11.30 A.M. PRESS CONFERENCE
6 P.M. INAUGURATION
G. Bruno’ National Boarding School
Maddaloni, Via S. Francesco D’Assisi, 119
