2025 at the Mart in Rovereto, amid new projects, events and exhibitions with an international scope

At the end of the year, the Mart in Rovereto inaugurated its new permanent exhibition. On the second floor, the exhibition space is now twice the size of the previous layout: more than 400 works, divided into 14 thematic-chronological sections, tell the story of the Mart’s great artistic heritage.
Over the course of 2025, the remounting of the collections will be further enriched with three new educational stations: interactive environments designed to foster relationships and transform the experience with art. Keywords: fun, wellness, spontaneity. Aimed primarily at families, these stations represent the evolution of the Baby Mart project, which began with the opening of the museum. In fact, the Mart was the first Italian museum to dedicate a room to the autonomy of the public and to the needs of the little ones. Unlike Baby Mart, the new stations will not be separate spaces, but will integrate directly into the exhibition itinerary, encouraging a more relaxed and informal interaction with the works of art. The three thematic stages will be dedicated to vision, abstraction and fantasy, respectively. The design is entrusted to the studio normalearchitettura°, with the involvement of artists and female artists. These spaces are in addition to the Mart Relax, an existing area where visitors can take a break, relax, pause. The Mart wants to be attentive to the needs of everyone: from children to neurodivergent people, from the elderly to anyone who needs a moment of pause to read, draw, or simply reflect before continuing their visit.

Investing in non-publics and accessibility

The year 2025 will also mark the completion of two major two-year projects dedicated to audience expansion and cultural accessibility. The museum has chosen to invest in non-publics, teenagers and people with special needs.

The floor is yours

A major collaborative project between the Mart in Rovereto and two prestigious European museums-the Boijmans in Rotterdam and the Mumok in Vienna-will be completed in the spring. Funded by the European Creative Europe program (2021-2027), the program granted the three museums a total of 180,000 euros (60,000 euros each) to invest in non-publics and the local area.

The activities included three residencies for work, exchange and comparison (November 2023 in Rotterdam, February 2024 in Rovereto, November 2024 in Vienna). In order to foster the dissemination of virtuous practices and the involvement of their territories, each museum collaborated with local partners: those of the Mart were the Free Academy of Fine Arts of Brescia (Rovereto branch), La Foresta Community Academy, and the Office for Human Theatre association. A program of a dozen activities and events aimed at developing new audiences, accessibility of culture, and the relationship between young people and the museum was developed in Rovereto. Next event: March 20 and 21 in Rotterdam for the concluding seminar.

Increasingly committed to growth and inclusion, the Mart continues to consolidate its role as a cultural hub serving the community, aiming to make modern and contemporary art an accessible experience for all. Over the past two years, the museum has embarked on an important path of innovation and renewal linked to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. To encourage the active participation of people with disabilities, the program was carried out with the involvement of a number of social cooperatives in the area. Four of the five interventions included in the call are already completed: drafting and adoption of the PEBA; digital accessibility and website enhancement; vertical and horizontal pathways; and staff training. The objective: inclusive museum pathways is nearing completion.

An experimental Mart

Alongside projects nearing completion, the Mart is launching new initiatives to learn more about its audiences and improve the visitor experience through the use of technology and collaboration with research centers and companies.

Ways of Perception

With Ways of Perception, the Mart emerged as the winner, along with five other European cultural institutions, of the European call for proposals Recharge Next. Envisioned by ten partners, including European cultural and academic institutions, the program aims to identify effective means of diversifying the economic revenues of cultural institutions.

Ways of Perception gives continuity to the survey initiated by the Mart on mindfulness, meditation and yoga experiences in the museum, understood as a space of well-being. The project expands by intercepting the most current studies on so-called “altered states of consciousness” to develop prototypes that allow visitors to interact with art also through a perceptual, sensory and interactive experience. The next few months will see the co-conception, co-creation, testing and evaluation phases of new participatory methodologies. The project is carried out with the support of Professor Nicola De Pisapia, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, the third class address “Modeling and Digital Fabrication Technician” of MaDe - Manufacturing Design Institute in Rovereto and two local companies, selected thanks to the consultancy of Trentino Sviluppo: Level Up srl and Bookelot srl. Thanks to the scientific and technological support of the partners, the Mart aims to enhance approaches to the enjoyment of works of art, exploiting technology to foster innovative and interactive experiences, amplifying states of consciousness. Ways of Perception puts into practice the Living Lab methodology, dynamic spaces of co-creation in which different stakeholders collaborate to conceive, develop and test innovative solutions.

Hi-Mart

The Hi-Mart project, funded by the Fondazione Caritro in collaboration with Oriente Occidente, aims to improve the visitor experience through iBeacon technology, which collects data on audience movement within the museum. By analyzing dwell time in front of artworks or captions, it will be possible to optimize future layouts and improve communication with visitors. The project also includes immersive experiences that encourage a more dynamic enjoyment of museum spaces, such as sitting on the floor, lying down, or exploring the relationship with the architecture and works in a way that goes beyond just viewing.

Events.

Confirmed for 2025 are the W on Sunday and Other Paintings projects (in collaboration with the S. Chiara Cultural Services Center and the Nuovo Cineforum Rovereto), as well as the association with Oriente Occidente. The museum will continue to participate in local initiatives and enrich the cultural offerings of the area.

Among the novelties of 2025, the Mart will participate for the first time in the Educa Immagine festival, organized and produced by the Trentino Film Commission. Through lectures, talks, workshops and activities for adult audiences and schools, the festival aims to raise public awareness of the importance of visual education, delving into the museum’s identity issues and the languages of contemporaneity, visual arts and photography.

Exhibitions and displays

The 2025 exhibition calendar confirms the direction of recent years, with strategic collaborations, dialogues between different eras and big names in art.

The season opens in Trento on Feb. 26, in the spaces of the Galleria Civica, with Emotional Intelligences, an experimental and workshop project in collaboration with the University of Trento. In Rovereto, the first exhibitions will open on March 8, with two shows dedicated to the Luigi Ferro and Vincenzo Paolillo collections, accompanied by a focus on the career of sculptor Marco Ferri.

From April 12 come the major spring exhibitions with an international scope: the new photographic project by Sebastião Salgado, in collaboration with MUSE and the Trento Film Festival; the first major Italian monographic exhibition dedicated to the painter Li Yongzheng; and an unprecedented comparison between the modern painters Pyke Koch and Cagnaccio di San Pietro.
Spring will close with a solo exhibition of fashion photographer Daniele Tamagni, from May 17 at the Galleria Civica in Trento.

For the summer, the Mart anticipates that from July 12 it will host the exhibition Trentino. Sguardi d’autore, curated by Denis Curti, and a widespread focus on Girolamo Ciulla. And then the double solo exhibition of artists Nebojša Despotović and Barbara De Vivi, at the Galleria Civica in Trento.
As always, the exhibition program will be enriched by research projects at the Archivio del ’900 and in-depth focuses at the Casa d’Arte Futurista Depero, as well as off-site exhibitions.

2025 at the Mart in Rovereto, amid new projects, events and exhibitions with an international scope

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