Rosa Barba's 'Frame Time Open' at MAXXI Blends Cinema, Sculpture, and Architecture

The MAXXI museum in Rome presents 'Frame Time Open,' a comprehensive solo exhibition by Italian artist Rosa Barba, curated by Francesco Stocchi. The show features 21 works from 2011 to 2025, including films, sculptures, and installations that explore the intersection of cinema, architecture, and space. Barba describes her practice as a 'change of gear' between vision, reading, and listening, creating an 'anti-immersive' space that is fragile yet physically powerful. Key works include 'Myth and Mercury' (2025), a film about the Mediterranean's recent history, and 'Stage Archive' (2011), 'They are taking my letters' (2025), 'Weavers' (2025), 'A shark well governed' (2017), 'Poised Compression' (2023), and 'Off splintered time' (2021). The exhibition also features 'Solar flux Recordings' (2022) and 'Spacelenght thought' (2012), where a typewriter types a monologue onto blank film. A complementary focus on photographer Elisabetta Catalano, titled 'Obiettivo sugli artisti' and curated by Laura Cherubini, presents sixteen vintage prints from the MAXXI collection, depicting Italian artists from the 1960s to 2000s, including Mario Schifano, Gino De Dominicis, Maurizio Mochetti, Mario Merz, Carla Accardi, Enzo Cucchi, and H.H. Lim.