Museion - Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

Museion is Bolzano's museum of modern and contemporary art: a glass-faced building on the Talvera river at the edge of the medieval centre. Founded in the 1980s and reborn in a transparent new building in 2008, it treats art as a living conversation between the Alps and the international scene.

Why it matters

Museion is the museum for modern and contemporary art in South Tyrol, and its mission is to foster international art, culture and innovation in the region while supporting South Tyrolean artists. Its programme pushes past painting into architecture, film, performance and theatre, and it promotes contemporary art from the 1950s onwards. Since 2006, Museion has been a private-law foundation bringing together the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol and private founders. On the city's riverfront, its transparent facades were built to connect the old and new parts of town — an architectural argument that culture is the hinge between them.

What to notice

The building is a compact cube sheathed in glass, designed by the Berlin architectural studio KSV — Krüger Schuberth Vandreike — and opened in May 2008 under director Corinne Diserens. Its transparency changes with the weather and with each installation; the Passage is the glazed link between its galleries. The programme centres on changing exhibitions, collection presentations and the museum's long-form academy programmes. Its library and Bulletin essay series reflect the institution's research and publishing work.

Context and history

The museum began its activities in 1987 in a former hospital building in Via Sernesi, under the direction of Pier Luigi Siena and the presidency of Karl Nicolussi-Leck. Over the following two decades it grew from a civic initiative into a professional institution: Alois Lageder took the presidency in 2000, and under director Andreas Hapkemeyer the programme turned toward linguistic structures in art. In 2006 Museion became a private-law foundation uniting the Autonomous Province and private founders; in 2007 Corinne Diserens was appointed director, and in May 2008 the museum moved into its new home by KSV with its large transparent facades. Letizia Ragaglia led the institution from the end of 2008 to May 2020, expanding its international profile, and in June 2020 the art historian Bart van der Heide took over as director, steering Museion toward its current mix of exhibition, mediation and research.