Lorenza Baroncelli on Her Career Turning Point: From Colombia to MAXXI

In the twenty-second installment of 'La svolta,' a series where art world figures recount pivotal career moments, Lorenza Baroncelli, Director of MAXXI Architettura e Design contemporaneo, identifies her return from Colombia as decisive. While working on urbanism and urban regeneration in a complex context, she had never considered museums as a professional field and was outside major international circuits. Then Hans Ulrich Obrist called, inviting her to collaborate on the Swiss Pavilion at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, which he curated. That experience opened a stimulating research and work path, leading her first to the Triennale di Milano and subsequently to MAXXI, where she now directs the Department of Contemporary Architecture and Design. Baroncelli believes architecture should be studied, interpreted, and appreciated as an art form, with deep impact on people's lives and political, economic, and social implications. Bringing architecture into museums allows the public to understand it and be moved with the same intensity as art.