Nascita di un museo per le arti contemporanee : Il caso del Centro Pecci, 1986-1992

The Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Arts is the first contemporary art institution newly created in Italy in 1988. Amnon Barzel was its initial art director and conceived the structure in departments, the program of exhibitions and art projects, the fields of research to investigate, and the development of its collection. This paper explores how the different types of video documentation extensively produced under his direction activate a series of strategies to narrate and document the role of a contemporary art museum, engaging the artists and describing the live/in-progress state of the art-making process in the museum.