'Telling' the exhibitions with music and words, the Maxxi in Rome protagonist in three evenings

'Telling' exhibitions with music and words. This is the initiative that will see the Maxxi in Rome as the protagonist in three evenings scheduled on 26 September, 31 October and 28 November. An unprecedented experiment that aims to combine the artistic and cultural content of some exhibitions with music and storytelling. The narrator of the three evenings will be journalist Dario Laruffa. Performing the music will be the Scoop Jazz Band, a group of journalists and musicians formed in 2010 that offers a repertoire of jazz standards, blues classics and swing with original reinterpretations on both the rhythmic and melodic sides.

It starts on 26 September with the current exhibition at the Maxxi entitled 'Stadiums, Architecture and Myth'. What does the stadium represent for all of us? It is a place of strong passions, for the team of our heart, for the pride of cheering on the national team, but also for the desire to exalt ourselves to the rhythm of our favourite band. A collective ritual that has accompanied the profound transformations of contemporary societies, in some ways anticipating trends and customs. And music has very often been at the centre of these great changes, especially jazz, a genre and musical language that spans generations and continues to excite. The exhibition - the first in Italy dedicated to this architectural typology - traces the history of stadiums, from the ancient stone of the Panathinaiko in Athens to contemporary masterpieces of technology and design. "Secular cathedrals of our time, today these monumental architectures are much more than sports arenas: they are vital centres, mirrors of the city, places of collective ritual, symbols of urban and cultural transformation, where everyday life and the exceptional meet," reads the presentation of the exhibition. A journey through the centuries that crosses different continents highlighting the evolution of these structures, "from simple spaces for sporting competition to multifunctional settings capable of hosting concerts, religious ceremonies, mass gatherings, political events, fairs and artistic performances, to becoming a tool for city branding and a new destination for global tourism". In the exhibition a special focus is dedicated to Italian stadiums, their diffusion, quality and the heated debate on the prospects for regeneration.

The second evening scheduled for 31 October starts with this question: what unites journalism and jazz? The answer is offered by the Scoop jazz band, which for years has been aiming to establish a sort of unprecedented alchemy between passion, curiosity, rigour in the daily exercise of writing and information more generally, and jazz, a musical genre in which study, daily practice and improvisation coexist.

On the third evening of 28 November, the unprecedented fusion of art, storytelling and music will explore the 'Eternal City' to illustrate the themes and suggestions offered by the exhibition 'Rome in the World', which will be inaugurated in those very days at the Maxxi. A way to experience in space and time the importance and greatness of Rome, in its recent history but also to dwell on how the capital is perceived internationally. A contradictory and complex urban ecosystem and, at the same time, a historical-architectural unicum without equal in the world, Rome represents a reference in the evolution of cities on a global level. "Despite this, its connection with other cities of the world, today in rapid evolution, remains poorly documented and even less understood," reads the presentation. The exhibition recalibrates the space that Rome occupies in relation to cities all over the world, through the comparison of data and parameters linked to the life of cities and their inhabitants, but also to the very idea of the Eternal City in the collective imagination of artists, men of letters, travellers who have visited it in past centuries and of tourists, migrants, and scholars who live and read the city today.