MAXXI Rome commemorates Aldo Moro with Francesco Arena's installation

The MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo in Rome will exhibit Francesco Arena's installation "3,24 mq" from March 16 to May 9, 2018, marking the 40th anniversary of Aldo Moro's kidnapping and assassination. Moro, a former Italian Prime Minister and president of the Christian Democracy party, was abducted by the Red Brigades on March 16, 1978, at the intersection of via Mario Fani and via Stresa in Rome. His five bodyguards were killed, and Moro was held for 55 days before his body was found on May 9, 1978, in a Renault 4 trunk on via Michelangelo Caetani. Arena's work, created in 2004 for the opening of Monitor Gallery in Rome, reproduces the exact dimensions of the cell where Moro was imprisoned. The installation will be displayed in the museum's permanent collection gallery, accompanied by talks with historians, journalists, and writers. MAXXI president Giovanna Melandri stated the institution aims to counter cultural and social deterioration. Arena, born in 1978, the year of the kidnapping, describes the cell as a place of transformation from politician to icon, stripped of figurative references to become a space for personal reflection.