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Maria Lai at Naples' Madre Museum: Last Weeks to See "Essere è tessere"
A sixty-year retrospective of the Sardinian artist known for stitching thread into art fills Naples' contemporary museum through 21 September 2026.
What is the Maria Lai exhibition at the Madre?
"Essere è tessere" ("To be is to weave") is a retrospective dedicated to Maria Lai, the Sardinian artist who spent over sixty years working thread, fabric, bread, and books into sculpture and performance — most famously tying an entire mountain village together with a ribbon of blue cloth in her 1981 piece Legarsi alla montagna. The show at Naples' Madre, the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina on Via Settembrini, gathers roughly 200 works spanning her career and puts them in dialogue with work from young artists connected to the Premio Meridiana prize.
The exhibition opened 25 June 2026 and runs through 21 September 2026 — a little over a month left as of this writing, so it's worth planning around rather than leaving for a future trip.
What are the hours, and how much does it cost?
The Madre is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 10:00 to 19:30, and Sunday from 10:00 to 20:00; it's closed Tuesdays. Admission to the exhibition is €8. The museum sits in the historic centre on Via Settembrini, near Piazza Cavour, reachable on metro Line 1 or Line 2 to the Museo or Cavour stops, which puts it within easy walking distance of Capodimonte and the Sanità district.
Is it worth fitting into a Naples trip?
Yes, if contemporary art or textile craft interests you at all — Lai's work is tactile and often playful rather than austere, so it reads well even without an art-history background. Pair it with the museum's permanent collection, which was refreshed on 9 July 2026 under the title "Gli Anni. Capitolo 3," so you get both the temporary show and an updated look at the Madre's own holdings on the same ticket. Go on a weekday morning if you can — Ferragosto crowds have thinned out by late August, and the museum is quieter than the MANN or Capodimonte at the same hour.
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