It’s the incredible story of a family of migrants, the Fiermonte family, who left Apulia in the early 1900s for Rome, Paris, New York and Morocco; it’s the story of the painter and violinist Antonia Fiermonte, a free spirit of the 1930s, who left Italy for the extraordinary destiny waiting for her in France. She met art pursuing love; she met many of the main intellectuals of the time, marrying the sculptor René Letourneur as soon as she was of age. She eventually succumbed to her passion for her friend and fellow artist Jacques Zwobada, who lived at the Fontenay-aux-Roses estate, where the two artists lived and worked. Antonia died suddenly in Rome in 1956 - it would be many years before she ‘returned’ home to Apulia. This magical tale is hosted in a formerly abandoned period house in Vico dei Raynò, a property in the heart of Lecce that was transformed into the M.A.M.A Family Museum by the Filali brothers in 2018.
The first iteration of M.A.M.A transformed the building into an expression of artistic beauty, housing an exhibition of works by Antonia Fiermonte, Jacques Zwobada and René Letourneur, a project that established a link between the Fiermonte family history and two of the luxury residences of La Fiermontina Family Collection: La FiermontinaLuxury Home and La Fiermontina Palazzo Bozzi Corso. 2023 was a crucial year for the M.A.M.A Family Museum as it became a part of the Apulia Region Museum Network,an accolade accompanied by a transformation within the building itself, with new spaces expertly restored by the engineer Edmondo Scrimieri and architect Sandra Maccul. In April 2024, the museum will open with a new name: Fiermonte Museum, offering visitors a space not only to be admired, but inhabited and generated, where art is open,accessible and within reach.
"Interlocking Rooms" where a tragic and moving work is represented at the same time, emblematic symbolism, allegorical of the protagonists who live, after death, a melodrama between love, betrayal and friendship. A Freudian trilogy whose actors are gathered in the same place. Two French sculptors. Between them, an Italian woman with a beauty that could damn souls. They are there, reproducing the scene while they are alive."
Antonia Yasmina Filali
Three, like the values of Fiermonte Museum: Art, Friendship, Love.
Three, like its protagonists: Antonia Fiermonte and the two artists she loved.
Three, like the phases of their lives together: the brotherhood of René and Jacques, their separation due to mad love, their friendship rediscovered after the death of their muse.
Three, like the countries of origin of the Fiermonte-Filali family: Italy, France and Morocco.
Three, like the residences in Lecce that sublimate the family story
As well as a Modern Art Collection, the Fiermonte Museum is also a cultural hub that is open to hosting exhibitions, workshops, artistic residencies, events and other unique experiences.
In the heart of Lecce, the Fiermonte Museum is a unique space composed of buildings from the late 19th and early 20th century, distributed across three levels and connected by an imposing Corten staircase.