Jimmie Durham's Contemporary Nativity at Madre Museum Naples

On December 22, 2016, the Madre Museum in Naples unveiled a contemporary nativity scene by American artist, writer, and political activist Jimmie Durham (born 1940 in Washington, Arkansas). Titled "Presepio," the work was conceived and created specifically for the museum as part of the ongoing project "Per_formare una collezione," initiated in 2013 to build the museum's collection. Durham had previously created a nativity scene for the former Lanificio Borbonico in Naples, where he resides when in the city. The piece follows the traditional Neapolitan nativity configuration, setting the birth of Jesus in a contemporary urban landscape surrounded by popular figures such as the salvific fisherman, the sleeping Benino, and the messianic angel. Durham uses raw, unworked marble and polychrome wood—materials historically used by early sculptors of the nativity—but deconstructs and depowers them: the stone is left rough, and a piece of wood becomes a symbol of the sacred. Figures are carved from wood, stone, horn, and bronze, with simple touches of color or fragments of fabric and leather. The evocative setting, assembled from natural particles, lends the nativity an archaic, intimate spirituality. The work enters the Madre's collection, continuing the museum's tradition of artist nativities that began in 2015 with Giosetta Fioroni.