The Museum
A contemporary art museum in the heart of Matera
The TAM Tower Art Museum is a museum of contemporary art located in the center of Matera.
In the exhibition spaces, divided between the central Via Ridola and the Capone tower (12th century), national and international artists are hosted to hold temporary exhibitions.
Why a museum of contemporary art?
The TAM Tower Art Museum will stage two exhibitions a year: producing new content and hybridising spaces, creating new and unprecedented points of contact between the contemporary artistic production and the historical context, is a solution to bring new life and generate new insights, avoiding a musealisation of the city.
The name TAM is also the reversal of MAT and the concept of the city, going beyond the rhetoric of shame and a past that belongs only as habitus to the new generations.
The museum does not start from a permanent collection but will work to build one from the exhibitions held and the relationships with the involved artists.
The story of this museum began at the end of 2017 and is (almost) completely told by the project “Volevo solo aprire un museo – I just wanted to open a museum”, starting from the discovery of the exhibition space of the Capone tower.
Capone tower
In 1973 Camilla Motta bought the Capone tower, a bastion that is part of the city wall erected after the settlement of the Sasso Caveoso.
The name Capone could be a deformation of Carbone, as written by the canon Nicolò Domenico Nelli in his “chronicle”, as evidenced in a parchment dating back to 1382.
The tower has been subject and witnessed countless modifications and a constant stratification, until its complete filling occurred presumably in the 19th century, which makes its historical reading very complex; it is impossible to empty it of debris to this day.
The spaces around the tower, which are privately owned, were abandoned for years until 2017, when the clearing of the wild greenery and the subsequent restoration and conservation work began, with the goal of transforming those spaces into the headquarters of TAM.
Volevo solo aprire un museo – I just wanted to open a museum
In recent years, TAM has spoken through the “Volevo solo aprire un museo (I just wanted to open a museum) page: ua storytelling path that brought this reality into existence before it was formally opened. The ‘museum-that-still-doesn’t-exist’ has told its story on youtube and instagram without following a precise storytelling: what has emerged is a narrative, an ongoing one, that tries to understand how cultural enterprise is done in Italy and how to open a contemporary art museum (if you don’t know how).
TAM opened to the public on 01 December 2022.
TAM and Volevo solo aprire un museo (I just wanted to open a museum) are projects curated by Torretta srl – social enterprise (Mauro Acito, Dario Colacicco, Rita Padula, Silvia Parentini, Debora Russo, Alessandro Simili, Chiara Valzer)