MUSMA - Museum of Contemporary Sculpture in Matera - is hosting from July 5 to October 5, 2025 an exhibition dedicated to Dadamaino, pseudonym of Edoarda Emilia Maino (Milan, 1930-2004), a relevant figure in the artistic scene of the second half of the 20th century in Italy and internationally. Entitled Dadamaino. Signs, Graphies, Spaces, the exhibition is curated by Flaminio Gualdoni and opens Saturday, July 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Palazzo Pomarici, in the center of the Sassi of Matera.
The initiative aims to restore an articulated vision of the artist’s work through a significant selection of works created between 1975 and 1996, mostly from the Dadamaino Archive. The exhibition focuses on some of the artist’s most emblematic series, documenting her path of research between sign, writing and space.
“As Archives, we particularly welcome the opportunity offered by MUSMA to exhibit the cycle of works created by Dadamaino starting in 1975,” emphasize Fernando Colombo and Nicoletta Saporiti, directors of the Dadamaino Archive. Works that are lesser known and yet particularly original. Even more pleasing is to have discovered, a first for the Archives, the presence in 1975 of Dada accompanied by Andrea Cascella, in Matera at the workshop of master ceramist Giuseppe Mitarotonda. Three works remain from this visit that will be presented in the next exhibition at MUSMA."
“The installation I fatti della vita, by its date, mode of exploration and use of space as language, brings us right back to Consagra’s action,” says Simona Spinella, MUSMA curator. “He, too, uses words to denounce, writing the famous Letter to the people of Matera, in which he calls for the establishment of an Art Front to save the Sassi. The front was formed on October 20, 1978. Among the signatories, besides Consagra, were Dadamaino, Bonalumi, Carmi, Castellani, Dorazio, Franchina, Nigro, Perilli, Pozzati, Rotella, Santomaso and Turcato.”
The main nuclei of the exhibition include Inconscio razionale (1978), I fatti della vita (1978-1982), Costellazioni (1981-1987) and Il movimento delle cose (1987-1996). These are cycles of works that illustrate the continuity of a rigorous visual reflection, nourished by a constant tension toward synthesis, sequence and rhythm. The exhibition highlights how Dadamaino progressively developed an autonomous language, within which serial graphics and structures are posed as tools for investigating time and space.
Alongside these works, the exhibition presents three ceramic works made in Matera in the 1970s: two terracottas and the plate Fronte dell’Arte, produced at the workshop of master potter Giuseppe Mitarotonda. Their presence testifies to the artist’s openness to material experimentation and to the possibility of transferring his language to media other than traditional ones. The inclusion of the ceramics, long not on public display, returns a little-known but relevant piece of Dadamaino’s research, strengthening the link between the artist and the city of Lucania.
The opening, scheduled for Saturday, July 5, at 6:30 p.m., will be free admission. The exhibition will then be open until Oct. 5, 2025, every weekday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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| Dadamaino on display at MUSMA in Matera with his works between the 1970s and 1990s |
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