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Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee – museo Madre announces the appointment of Eugenio Viola as Director, a role he took on in August 2026.
Located in the historic centre of Naples, Madre is the Campania Region’s museum of contemporary art and a key institution in Italy’s contemporary art landscape. Through exhibitions, commissions, research, public programs, and its collection, Madre connects artistic practices with the cultural and political issues shaping the present, while maintaining a strong international outlook.
Viola returns to Madre after a decade of work throughout Europe, Australia, and Latin America. From 2019 to 2026 he was Artistic Director and Chief Curator of MAMBO–Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia; he previously served as Senior Curator at PICA–Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Australia (2017–19). Earlier in his career, he was a curator at Madre from 2009 to 2016. He was General Curator of the 24th Bienal de Arte Paiz in Guatemala (2025–26), and curated the Estonian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and the Italian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022). His work has developed through sustained engagement with places, linking local histories and conditions to wider geopolitical and cultural frameworks, with particular attention to practices that question dominant narratives and structures of power.
Viola’s program approaches Madre as an open, plural, and outward–looking institution, where exhibitions form part of a broader ecology of cultural production, research, learning, and public engagement. Particular attention will be given to building substantive relationships with various communities, broadening and diversifying audiences, and developing long–term collaborations with artists, cultural organizations, as well as local and international institutions. These priorities are conceived as mutually reinforcing: curatorial quality fosters engagement and participation; the collection strengthens the museum’s identity and visibility; research and learning generate knowledge; financial sustainability ensures continuity; sound governance turns vision into action; and strong local roots, together with international relationships, shape the institution’s profile.
Roberto Fico, President of the Campania Region, stated: “We firmly believe that arts and culture are essential to the growth of our communities, to supporting emerging talent, and to the development of the region itself. We want ambitious, high–quality projects, as well as people with proven professionalism and expertise, to be recognised and supported.”
Onofrio Cutaia, Councillor for Culture of the Campania Region, said: “With the appointment of Eugenio Viola, the Region is repositioning its contemporary art museum on the international stage, as a transnational hub open to the world and critically engaged with the tensions of the present. Viola will pursue this public mission through a strategic vision that combines an international outlook with a strong connection to the local context, making the museum a dynamic and transformative presence in Naples and for its communities.”
Angela Tecce, President of Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee, added: “I am delighted with the appointment of Eugenio Viola. I have followed his work with great interest over the years, and I am pleased that he is returning with a wealth of experience, which I am confident will further strengthen the institution’s profile and public role.”
On his appointment, Viola said: “Returning to museo Madre has special meaning for me. It is where my institutional career began and where I learned to see the museum not simply as an exhibition space but as a living structure of thought, relationships, and shared conversations. I envision Madre as a necessary museum: rooted in Naples, able to speak from the city without becoming localist, and from the South without seeing itself as peripheral. The challenge is to strengthen this identity while opening a new phase in which the Mediterranean and the Global Souths are not themes to be represented but critical perspectives through which Madre can engage the world.”
