MAO | Museo d'Arte Orientale, Turin

From its origins as the residence of Savoy aristocrats during the Baroque period to becoming the offices of a textile company in the late nineteenth century, from witnessing the terrorism of the "Anni di Piombo" (or Years of Lead) at the turn of the last century to becoming a window onto the East in 2008, the building that houses the MAO can be seen as a microcosm of the great changes experienced by its city and surrounding region.
Retracing the history of the building, which is as symbolic as it is unassuming, means grounding the Museum firmly into the texture and life of the city.
Inaugurated in 2008 in the historic venue of Palazzo Mazzonis, MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale holds one of the most prestigious collections of Asian art in Italy and in Europe.
MAO is not just a place where the collections are presented to the public. It is an experimental site to activate the collections through exhibitions and performances:

- it is an opportunity to create and expand contents and research;
- a protagonist in a global network that explores the potentials of enhancing groups of works of Asian art in a European and international context;
- a social place for encounters;
- a center for experimentation that works in triangulation between the conservation, production, and evolution of activities carried out in respect of the environment and system ecology;
- it's #MAOTempoPresente.

www.maotorino.it