Introduction

The Rosa Barba. Stage Archive exhibition arises from the collaboration between the two institutions from the Trentino, and revolves around the role of archive, and as such shapes the identity and institutional activities of the contemporary museum.
 
The starting point is represented by a work in which Rosa Barba explores the documents of the Futurist period in the Mart di Rovereto’s Historic Archives. The project of the double exhibition consists in presenting various Futurist works in the form of “sculpture-abstract theatre”, including sets and bases for film never realised by Fortunato Depero, the originals of which are conserved at the Mart. The archive is re-interpreted by the artist not only as a place of conservation but also as a fulcrum of a fluid temporality, confusing past, present and future as the active engine of the imagination, as source of new narrations, as stage; whence the name of the exhibition, Stage Archive.