Fremantle has signed a new partnership with MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts, a multi-faceted cultural hothouse open to every language of contemporary creativity.

The agreement involves staging a series of masterclasses filmed in the spectacular MAXXI building in Rome, designed by Zaha Hadid. The masterclasses will star five unsurpassed masters of italian art and culture: multi-award-winning photographer Letizia Battaglia, pioneer and master of sustainable architecture Mario Cucinella, multi-faceted architect and designer Piero Lissoni, Oscar-winning composer Nicola Piovani and Arte Povera master Michelangelo Pistoletto.

The five episodes of the series will allow viewers to discover the secrets of the trade and of the creative process involved in crafting works, thanks to the artists’ first-person accounts which are intimate yet formative: how they started out, their family, encounters, studies and work, and success. Together, fragments of their recollections, new anecdotes, episodes and personal memories make up the story of the artist and the person.

Offering a unique opportunity to hear the words and experiences of these past-masters who, thanks to the co-production between Fremantle and MAXXI, will be able to engage with an even broader audience, both in Italy and abroad, thereby helping to showcase Italian art worldwide.

“MAXXI has always accompanied its exhibitions with eventful programmes of sessions to meet the artists, architects, designers, philosophers, men and women of culture,” explains Giovanna Melandri, President of the MAXXI Foundation. “During lockdown we were closed, but we didn’t switch off. So we moved this incredible wealth of ideas online, with a production of original videos which notched up over 15 million viewings. We learned that the real MAXXI and the virtual MAXXI are complementary. So I am particularly pleased about the joint venture with Fremantle, a global leader across  broadcast, content and digital. Together we are making contents of outstanding quality, giving a voice to the most interesting creative minds of our times, so we can learn from the great masters themselves.”

“The agreement with MAXXI complements the group’s strategy to perfection,” adds Andrea Scrosati, Fremantle Group COO and CEO of Continental Europe. “We have long been committed to producing and showcasing local artistic contents on a global scale: just think about the impact that recent Italian series such as My Brilliant Friend, or films like The Hand of God by Oscar-winner Paolo Sorrentino, made on an international level. This partnership with an artistic institution of the calibre of the MAXXI sets a further piece of the puzzle in place, bearing witness to our commitment to support culture in all its forms.”

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