Margherita Moscardini, Metropolitan Voids Agency

2 October, at 6 pm—Madre, Naples (Speakers: Margherita Moscardini and Francesca Verga).

3 October, at 6 pm—MAXXI, Rome, sala Carlo Scarpa (Speakers: Margherita Moscardini, Pippo Ciorra and Francesca Verga)

9 October, at 3 pm—ISCP, New York (with Printed Matter, NY) (Speakers: Margherita Moscardini and Zasha Colah)

16 October, at 6:30 pm—Archive, Berlin (Speakers: Margherita Moscardini and Zasha Colah)

22 October, at 6 pm—Ar/Ge Kunst, Bozen-Bolzano (Speakers: Margherita Moscardini, Nicola Trezzi, Mohamed Shaqdih and Francesca Verga)

Metropolitan Voids Agency is the first monographic publication dedicated to the collected works of artist Margherita Moscardini. The book recounts the work carried out by Moscardini spanning seventeen years, between 2008 and 2024, inviting a reading of her practice in its entirety as an investigation into “urban voids”, that Moscardini recognised and designated as such, or those that she herself invented in the urban space, or spaces sparsely anthropized, in between the meshes of the law.

The artwork of Margherita Moscardini, born in Italy in 1981, favour long-term projects developed through large-scale interventions, sculptures, video, and writings. Divided into six sections, Metropolitan Voids Agency carries essays by Derk Stegeman, Francesca Verga, Lawrence Liang, Margherita Moscardini, Nora Sternfeld, Pelin Tan, Pippo Ciorra, and Zasha Colah.

Each section of the book tells of a long-term project through a descriptive text and research images, a photo essay relating to the project, and an in-depth essay by an invited writer. The seven sections correspond to the main long-term projects that Moscardini has developed, investigating geographical contexts considered paradigmatic of the present and crossing different areas, from architecture to urban studies, from law to philosophy.

Metropolitan Voids Agency, published by Archive Books Berlin and commissioned by Ar/Ge Kunst Bozen-Bolzano, is edited by Zasha Colah and Francesca Verga.

Editorial coordination: Greta Martina, Verena Rastner

The project is supported by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (12th edition, 2023), which aims to promote Italian contemporary art worldwide.

On the contributing authors:

Derk Stegeman is a theologian, minister of the Protestant Church of The Hague, and director of STEK— the diaconal organization of the church in The Hague. He was the spokesperson and coordinator of the non-stop worship service of the Bethel Chapel in The Hague, from October 2018 to February 2019.

Francesca Verga works on curating, management and research in visual and performing arts. She is co-artistic director at Ar/Ge Kunst, Kunstverein in Bolzano-Bozen, and Assistant Curator at the Italian Pavilion (Venice Biennale, 2024).

Lawrence Liang is Dean, Professor of Law at Dr BR Ambedkar University Delhi. His interest lies at the intersection of law and culture, and he works on the visual and cultural life of law. His other scholarly interests include cinema, Indian epics, and legal history.

Margherita Moscardini is an artist whose practice crosses different fields among which are architecture, the city, and citizenship, seeking to generate sculptures meant as unappropriable objects and spaces which legally distance themselves from the sovereignty of the territories they occupy.

Nora Sternfeld is an art educator and curator; and she is a professor of art education at the HFBK Hamburg. She is co-director of the /ecm—Master Programme for Exhibition Theory and Practice at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Pelin Tan is an art historian and sociologist, currently a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Batman, and Senior research fellow of the Center for Arts, Design and Social Research, Boston/USA.

Pippo Ciorra is Full professor at SAAD (UNICAM), critic, writer, director of the International PhD program “Villard d’Honnecourt” at IUAV, Senior Curator of MAXXI Architettura in Rome.

Zasha Colah is co-artistic director of Ar/Ge Kunst (Bozen-Bolzano, 2023–) and a lecturer in Curatorial Studies at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (Milano, 2018–). She is curator of the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (to open in June 2025).

Thank you to: Mohamed Shaqdih, Darat al Funun—The Khalid Shoman Foundation; Eva Fabbris, Madre—Museo d´arte contemporanea Donnaregina; Susan Hapgood and Melinda Lang ISCP—International Studio & Curatorial Program; Nicola Trezzi, CCA—Center for Contemporary Art; Lorenza Baroncelli and Pippo Ciorra, MAXXI—Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo