The prestigious Young Architects Program put on by the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA P.S.1 in New York has announced that it’s teaming up with Rome’s National Museum of 21st Century Arts, or MAXXI, to host a second outdoor installation at the new Zaha Hadid museum.
MoMA’s chief curator of architecture and design, Barry Bergdoll who was on his way out of town for a vacation in Ethiopia before he takes up his post at Cambridge University to deliver the prestigious Slade Lectures, gave AN a call from Paragon Sporting Goods to describe the new initiative:
“It’s something I have wanted to do for a while. When I went to MAXXI for their opening last year, we talked about what we could do together. You have a courtyard, I said, and while it’s not surrounded by a wall it is a big open space and they are doing programming much like what’s happening at PS1. They immediately said they wanted to do it. To use our name in the collaboration, they will be following all our guidelines and procedures.
I see this as the first of several for Young Architects Programs that MoMA could get involved with globally. I want it to be localized; we are not exporting architects but trying to help grow young local talent. The five finalists in New York and in Italy will all be exhibited in both places, with just one or two judges from one group joining the other. Apart from that, the curating will remain within the home institutions. And they’ll open simultaneously.”
A New York jury already announced the finalists for the MoMA P.S.1 exhibition in Queens, New York. The short list includes firms from Brooklyn, Boston, and London. A separate jury in Rome has chosen the finalists for the MAXXI installation from across Europe. Both juries consisted of MoMA, MoMA P.S.1, and MAXXI officials, but in an effort to lend a local flavor to the exhibitions, each was responsible for their own geographic area.
Finalists for the Young Architects Program at the MAXXI:
- Raffaella De Simone e Valentina Mandalari – Palermo, Italy
- Ghigos Ideas – Lissone, Italy
- Asif Khan – London
- Langarita Navarro Arquitectos – Madrid
- stARTT – Rome
