Modern sculpture in cave rooms: the MUSMA brings art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries together with the city’s oldest building material. Worth seeing even if you are sceptical about the genre.
The setting
The museum occupies Palazzo Pomarici in the Sasso Caveoso. The building includes extensive cave rooms that once served as cellar, workshop and cistern. Part of the collection stands exactly there – not as a makeshift but as the concept: the rooms are part of the exhibition.
The collection
On show are sculptures, drawings, prints and ceramics by Italian and international artists, together with an extensive library on sculpture. The appeal lies in the interplay: metal and stone, smooth surfaces and rough rock, electric light in rooms that never had daylight. A polished bronze reads differently against chiselled limestone than in a white gallery.
Who it is for
Even if contemporary sculpture leaves you cold, you will like the rooms – the building carries the visit where the art might not. Conversely, the museum is a good choice on hot afternoons or in rain: underground it is cool and dry.
Practical
The route runs over steps between the levels; it is not step-free. Sturdy shoes help on the way through the cave rooms. A light jacket makes sense even in summer.
Read on
- Palazzo Pomarici – the building itself
- Madonna delle Virtù – another exhibition space inside the rock
- Museums in Matera – all the houses compared
