The charm of Rome and the memory of the 70s
1970s Rome at Palazzo delle Esposizioni –– There are particular places and historical periods that will go down in history for having fostered the creation of cultural trends and the subsequent ferment of movements and artistic phenomena. Just like it happened in Rome in the 70s. We usually consider Italy as the site of a glorious past, forgetting to count it as one of the great capitals of contemporary art.
Rome’s importance in the 1970s may be largely attribuited to the lively activity of galleries and cultural associations that played such a crucial role in promoting and hosting contemporary Italian and international art: Fabio Sargentini’s “L’Attico”, Plino De Martiis’s “La Tartaruga”, Gian Tommaso Liverani’s “La Salita”, the Internatinal Art Meetings chaired, among many others, by Achille Bonito Oliva, Konrad Fisher and Ugo Ferranti..
Activities that used to take place along more institutional programs offered by Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna (National Gallery of Modern Art) and Palazzo delle Esposizioni (that is hosting this exhibition). Not to mention the space that used to be self-managed by artists, such as Gap, Jartakor, La Stanza, S. Agata dei Goti, Lavatoio Contumaciale, or by feminist groups, like Cooperativa del Beato Angelico. Thus, the exhibition brings together voices and experiences of those years, from Arte Povera to Conceptual Art, from Anarchitecture to Narrative Art.
Even Joseph Beuys got the artistic potential of Rome in those years, and lived there before his death. More than two hundred works by italian and international artists are on display now at Palazzo delle Esposizioni – artworks that express more than just the story of a decade and of a city: they proclaim the expressiveness of contemporary life.
ROMA ANNI ’70 (1970s Rome), PALAZZO DELLE ESPOSIZIONI, ROMA December 17, 2013 – March 2, 2014
by Eleonora Salvi
in News
Mar 5, 2014