Madre, the contemporary art museum of Regione Campania, is pleased to announce the first retrospective exhibition devoted to Marcello Rumma (Salerno, 1942-1970), a key figure in the Italian and international cultural debate in the 1960s and 1970s. The event is curated by Gabriele Guercio with Andrea Viliani.
Marcello Rumma worked on his artistic research, which was as short-lived as it was intense and pioneering, as a promoter of exhibition and publishing projects. A connoisseur and passionate collector, an intellectual and a friend of artists, he organised exhibitions and promoted publications devoted to the most experimental forms of art in his day. These included projects that are now hailed as ground-breaking events in the history of contemporary art, including three editions of the Rassegna Internazionale di Arti Figurative in Amalfi (Aspetti del “Ritorno alle cose stesse”, curated by Renato Barilli, 1966, L’impatto percettivo, curated by Alberto Boatto and Filiberto Menna, 1967, and Arte povera + azioni povere, curated by Germano Celant, 1968). As well as promoting and making these events possible, Marcello Rumma also played an active role in other sectors, from teaching (he was the founder of the Centro Studi Colautti and launched awards and magazines for young artists) to publishing projects (in 1968 he set up the Rumma Editore publishing house, which, ahead of its time, came out with fundamental works on philosophy, art, theatre and cinema. These included the first Italian translation of the writings of Marcel Duchamp, Marchand du Sel, and the artist’s L’uomo nero, il lato insopportabile by Michelangelo Pistoletto).
