With Kathryn Weir the Mother will be an increasingly international museum

NAPLES - Born in Oxford, of Australian origin, British passport and French residence: Kathryn Weir, the new artistic director of the Museo Madre, has already fallen in love with Naples: '' a city unique to me not only in Italy but in Europe '' , defines her as soon as she was installed, the first woman to hold this position in the museum of contemporary art of the Campania Region which now therefore boasts an all-female summit. The President of the Foundation is in fact Laura Valente, just 'elected' by Artribune 'best museum president' in Italy for 2019.
The new director finds a healthy mother: 140 thousand visitors last year, with an increase of 37 percent (and 48% in the teenagers and teenagers) and a growing attention to the social. "Kathryn Weir has been unanimously appointed by an independent and free commission, which also included the outgoing director Viliani. With Weir the Mother will be more and more in the world" explained Valente. Fifty-two years old, an important experience as director of the Départmento Développement Culturel of the Center Pompidou (he has been a member of the Council since 2014), Weir will live in Naples with his family and is already looking for a house in the historic center. She was the creator of the Cosmopolis platform, a format created for the Center Pompidou and landed in 2018 in China, which also connects distant countries with a focus on 'new forms of creative experimentation and critical thinking'.
'' The Madre museum in this last period has changed pace, with a new design vision that for me corresponds to the reality of today's art - notes the director - Cosmopolis is a network of relationships but also a methodology; I'm sure this experience can also be transported to Naples, but it will take other forms and address different issues. Networking the artists of Naples but above all putting them in dialogue with the international context is fundamental. Naples is a unique city that has a very important history in the visual arts and in all the other arts, this story must certainly be brought internationally through the proposal of contemporary artists ''. The first thing he will focus on is knowledge of the city '' going to meet, listen and understand what are the dynamics that exist here today - he explains - I have already worked with Neapolitan artists, but I want to deepen my knowledge of the scene and of all the actors, not only from Naples but also from all of Campania ".
The president of the region Vincenzo De Luca greets Weir: "He made a choice in the first place of passion, love for the city and intellectual curiosity for the life and experience of the Madre museum". Among the 2020 exhibits of the Neapolitan museum there is also an international co-production dedicated to Peter Lindberg and a tribute to Mendini.