MAXXI to launch contemporary art museum in L'Aquila this weekend.

MAXXI L'Aquila, the long-awaited contemporary art museum in the Abruzzo capital, will be inaugurated by Italy's culture minister Dario Franceschini on Friday 28 May.

The museum, under the management of Rome's Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, is housed at Palazzo Ardinghelli which underwent extensive restoration, financed with the support of Russia, after L'Aquila's devastating earthquake in April 2009.

The museum will be open for previews from 31 May until 2 June before opening its doors officially on 3 June.

The project, stalled by the covid-19 emergency, has seen the complete renovation of the 18th-century Baroque building which was formerly the home of culture ministry offices.

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MAXXI president Giovanna Melandri has described the reopening of Palazzo Ardinghelli as symbolic of a "double rebirth", after the devastation of the earthquake and the suspension of time caused by the coronavirus lockdown.

The project is described by MAXXI as offering the community "a new collective place, a platform of cultural creativity, open, shared, at the service of the relaunch of the city."

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The opening exhibition, entitled Punto di Equilibrio. Pensiero spazio luce da Toyo Ito a Ettore Spalletti, will include eight new site-specific installations among 60 works from the MAXXI Collection.

The inauguration will be live streamed on the museum's social channels from 12.30-13.00 on 28 May, while later that evening Italian state broadcaster RAI 5 will dedicate an evening to the new museum, from 21.15.

For insights and updates on the new museum see the MAXXI website.

L'Aquila earthquake

In the early hours of 6 April 2009 a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the central Italian city of L'Aquila, killing 309 people, leaving 70,000 homeless and devastating more than 50 villages in the Abruzzo region.