Marcella Beccaria is an Italian art historian, curator and author. She is Chief Curator and Curator of Collections at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, where she has played a central role in the museum’s exhibition programme and in the development of its permanent collection.
Beccaria studied Art History and Criticism at the University of Turin. She later completed an MA in Art History and Museum Studies at Boston University. Her curatorial career began in the United States, where she worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
At Castello di Rivoli, Marcella Beccaria has worked closely with artists from different generations and cultural contexts. Her exhibitions often begin with a careful reading of an artist’s practice rather than with a theme imposed from outside.
This approach is particularly important in a museum such as Castello di Rivoli. Its architecture is strong, unfinished and never neutral. A curator must consider not only the individual works, but also how they occupy the rooms, respond to the building and change as visitors move through the exhibition.
Beccaria has also contributed to the study and presentation of the museum’s collection. Her work involves returning to familiar artworks, reconstructing their histories and placing them in new relationships. The collection is therefore treated as a living body rather than as a fixed sequence of established names.
During her career at Castello di Rivoli, Beccaria has curated exhibitions devoted to artists including Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Vito Acconci, Marinella Senatore, Jan Dibbets, Gilberto Zorio and Nalini Malani.
She has also co-curated major exhibitions and monographic projects involving Giovanni Anselmo, Wael Shawky and other leading figures in international contemporary art. These projects move between historical research, direct dialogue with artists and close attention to the conditions in which artworks are displayed.
In 2026, she curated Cecilia Vicuña: El glaciar ido at Castello di Rivoli. The exhibition, presented in the Manica Lunga, was the first solo museum exhibition dedicated to Vicuña in Italy. Its central work was a large horizontal quipu connected to the disappearance of glaciers, the loss of memory and the need to care for the natural world.
Alongside her exhibitions, Marcella Beccaria has written and edited numerous books and catalogues. She authored early monographs on artists such as Roberto Cuoghi, Yang Fudong and Francesco Vezzoli. She also wrote a major study of Olafur Eliasson published by Tate.
Her writing does not simply describe artworks. It reconstructs the ideas, decisions and encounters behind them. Interviews and conversations with artists are an important part of this method. They allow the artist’s voice to remain present while giving the reader the historical and critical context needed to understand the work.
Beccaria has contributed to publications connected with museums, biennials and international cultural institutions. Her activity brings together curating, collection research, museum practice and critical writing.
Cecilia Vicuña with El glaciar ido (2026) at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, Turin. Photo: Alberto Nidola. A conversation with Marcella Beccaria on Cecilia Vicuña’s first solo museum exhibition in Italy. In the Manica Lunga, El glaciar
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