From 22 September 2024 to 23 February 2025, in Pistoia, Palazzo de’ Rossi is hosting a new edition of In visita. This project, from the Fondazione Pistoia Musei, and part of the permanent exhibitions of the 20th-century Collections, offers special insights into groundbreaking 20th and 21st-century artists, through temporary exhibitions of single works.

The project is curated by Monica Preti, director general of Fondazione Pistoia Musei, and Annamaria Iacuzzi, curator of the 20th-century collections.

Featured in this edition of In visita is Maria Lai (1919-2013), an Italian artist who was widely acclaimed on the international scene. This will be the first time her work is shown in Pistoia. The piece Senza titolo (geografia) [Untitled (geography)], 1982-1988, on loan from Intesa Sanpaolo, is part of one of the most important and thematically defined series in the artist’s oeuvre and comes from the art collection assembled by Credito Industriale Sardo to document contemporary expressions of artists active in Sardinia.

In addition to the support of the Fondazione Caript, this instalment of In visita has the welcome collaboration of Intesa Sanpaolo and the Archivio Maria Lai.

“A focus on women’s themes”, stated Monica Preti, director general of Fondazione Pistoia Musei, “has been a common thread in the first three editions of In Visita, a project conceived with the aim of creating meaningful dialogues between the Palazzo de’ Rossi’s Collezioni del Novecento and those artists who best represent the 20th and 21st centuries. This third edition, dedicated to Maria Lai, is confirmation of our fruitful collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, whose contribution makes it possible for us to host one of the most internationally acclaimed Italian artists. The piece Senza titolo (geografia), on exhibit for the first time in Pistoia, invites us to both reflect on geographical coordinates, and on the cultural and social coordinates that shape our present. Another great source of satisfaction is the beautiful series of fine publications accompanying the project, containing unprecedented new contributions of great value”.

“The relationship with Fondazione Caript continues and finds strength in the ever increasing sharing of our art collections, from Gallerie d'Italia to the Pistoia Musei venues. Joint projects – such as the twentieth-century itinerary at Palazzo de' Rossi, where Maria Lai's work is now “visiting” – is one of the most vital ways in which the Bank enriches its dialogue with the territories and institutions, helping to promote art and culture as an indispensable factor for growth” added Michele Coppola, Executive Director Arte, Cultura e Beni Storici Intesa Sanpaolo.

The work, made with thread sewn onto fabric and velvet, is part of a series on the theme of geography, created by the artist in the 1980s. It is a remarkable example of Maria Lai’s creative method and poetics, her reflection on the identity of Sardinian women and the symbolic value of thread and weaving as a means of relating.

The piece also offers an opportunity to reflect on women artistic languages in the 20th century and the theme of geography, which the artist interpreted as a metaphor for humanity’s continuous yearning for the unknown, for space and infinity, in a fragile world threatened by endless catastrophes.

The exhibition will be accompanied by the publication of the catalogue In visita. Maria Lai, published by Gli Ori-Pistoia, with contributions from Monica Preti, Annamaria Iacuzzi and Francesco Tedeschi. For some time, Tedeschi has been studying the relationship between art and geography, and for this work, he has provided a historical critical analysis on the relationship between art and space in languages from the 1970s to the contemporary age.

The inauguration of the exhibition, open to the public, will be held on Saturday 21 September at 5 pm in Palazzo de’ Rossi. For this event in the Saloncino della musica (limited seating, booking required through the Pistoia Musei website), there will be an exclusive screening of some of Maria Lai’s video fairy tales, directed by Francesco Casu with music by Romeo Scaccia. The video fairy tales are a digital elaboration of the Fiabe cucite (sewn fairy tales) that the artist had been working on since the 1980s, in parallel with the sewn cloths of the Geographies series. With the videos, the public has the opportunity to listen first-hand to the artist’s poetic and narrative voice. The screening will be attended by the director Francesco Casu, Maria Sofia Pisu and Eva Maria Borzoni from the Archivio Maria Lai and Francesco Tedeschi, Professor of Contemporary Art History at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.