Re-generation

At the MACRO Testaccio, the sheds of a former slaughterhouse become the setting for works produced recently, or especially for the occasion, by thirty artists aged between 20 and 30.

Since the day it opened in Rome, we have been waiting for the MACRO Testaccio, formerly known as the MACRO Future, to emerge as an off establishment space for today's art. It originated in 2003 in the city's former slaughterhouse, in the multifaceted context of the old Testaccio district: a blue-collar area that has embraced a large intellectual community without losing its working-class soul. Buzzing with nightlife, it is also the location chosen by the Roma Tre University for its new Faculty of Architecture with approximately one thousand students.

Given all this, the museum might just, at last, become a rendezvous and place of cultural exchange, a point of reference for habitués and local residents alike. It might even attract a new type of public and become an experimental space for new curatorial and exhibition approaches, offering visibility to artists not yet consecrated and a museum workshop in constant debate with the more traditional premises in via Reggio Emilia.

The new MACRO director, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, believes this is the direction the Testaccio will be pursuing by the end of the year, offering public services that will make it an important place of aggregation.

The Re-generation exhibition is the first step in the new cycle, and maps the recent phase of cultural renewal in the city of Rome that — according to Pietromarchi — "places the museum at the centre of artistic production, creating an essential relationship with its surrounding area." It does this from the standpoint of young Roman curators Maria Alicata and Ilaria Gianni, invited to select artists who have made the most interesting contributions to the city's artistic rebirth over the last five years. The sheds of the former slaughterhouse become the setting for works produced recently, or especially for the occasion, by approximately thirty artists aged between 20 and 30.

Top: Luana Perilli, installation view: <em>Dividual Superorganism human scale – constrain proportion</em>, 2012, and <em>Polyrhachis Dives kin selection - maiden aunt weaving chair</em>, 2012. Courtesy of The Gallery Apart, Rome. Photo by Giorgio Benni. Above: Pino Pascali, <em>Killer con scenografia</em> [Killer with set], 1967. Private collection. Courtesy of Archivio dell'opera grafica di Pino Pascali, Florence — Top: Luana Perilli, installation view: *Dividual Superorganism human scale – constrain proportion*, 2012, and *Polyrhachis Dives kin selection - maiden aunt weaving chair*, 2012. Courtesy of The Gallery Apart, Rome. Photo by Giorgio Benni. Above: Pino Pascali, *Killer con scenografia* [Killer with set], 1967. Private collection. Courtesy of Archivio dell'opera grafica di Pino Pascali, Florence

One of the most interesting is Dividual Superorganism by Luana Perilli (born 1981). For the exhibition, she built a glass case containing a microcosm inhabited by an ant colony, prompting observers to see themselves as part of that social group and to identify with the dynamics that govern its existence.

With Pictures of People in Caves, Nicola Pecoraro (born 1978) covered two large walls with clay in reference to the proximity of the River Tiber, transforming the exhibition space into a performative landscape which is subject to the passing of time.

Marco Raparelli, <em>I senza nome</em> [The un-named], 2012. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Umberto Di Marino, Naples. Photo by Giorgio Benni — Marco Raparelli, *I senza nome* [The un-named], 2012. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Umberto Di Marino, Naples. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Silvia Iorio (born 1977) stages another chapter of her Odysseia, launched in London in 2010 to challenge the traditional notions of space and time, through a series of references to the physical theory of Entanglement and the concept of displacement.

Alessandro Piangiamore (born 1970), has chosen to live and work in Rome despite his Sicilian origins. He asked friends and acquaintances to collect used wax, a hugely symbolic material at the heart of Christianity. He then melted the material to create large polychrome sculptural and pictorial works.

One of the drawings in Marco Raparelli's (born 1975) deliberately imprecise and Spartan style was selected to promote the exhibition. His work I senza nome gathers dreamlike situations and a strata of characters who occupy the museum space in a picture gallery, life-size figures that mingle with the visitors.

The exhibition is, of course, an overview and thus subject to criticism — so many established artists are absent —; but here comes into play the strong role played by curators Ilaria Gianni and Maria Alicata

Mary Reid Kelley with Patrick Kelley, <em>The Syphilis of Sisyphus</em>, 2011, video still, HD Video. Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias Gallery, London — Mary Reid Kelley with Patrick Kelley, *The Syphilis of Sisyphus*, 2011, video still, HD Video. Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias Gallery, London

Alongside Roman artists, the exhibition features numerous foreigners with Academy scholarships who have managed to form two-way relationships with Rome. Here, the city has become a starting point for new thoughts and works. Examples are Raphaël Zarka (born Montpellier, France 1978) and Mary Reid Kelley (born Greenville, South Carolina, USA, 1979).

Slipped in among younger artists are a series of works from the 1970s — a golden age for contemporary art in Rome — by six great masters who worked and lived in the city — Gianfranco Baruchello, Alighiero Boetti, Eliseo Mattiacci, Fabio Mauri, Luigi Ontani and Pino Pascali. Most notably, these include Pascali's animated drawings for an ad never broadcast, revealing a lesser-known aspect of the artist, and works by Baruchello, a refined artist and thinker that Rome has only recently rediscovered, who influenced a whole generation of Roman artists, curators and critics — today's 30-year-olds pay regular visits to his Foundation.

Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli, <em>La Fondation de Fès (elementi per una maledizione dei discendenti d’Idriss)</em> [The Foundation of Fès (elements for a curse on the descendants of Idriss)], development study for the third episode of the <em>Trilogia Mastequoia</em>, 2010-2012. Photo by Giorgio Benni — Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli, *La Fondation de Fès (elementi per una maledizione dei discendenti d’Idriss)* [The Foundation of Fès (elements for a curse on the descendants of Idriss)], development study for the third episode of the *Trilogia Mastequoia*, 2010-2012. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Re-generation is, of course, an overview and thus subject to criticism — so many established artists are absent — ; but here comes into play the strong role played by curators Ilaria Gianni and Maria Alicata. Both worked tirelessly, like artisans, spending months in direct contact with the artists. This constant exchange and many suggestions enabled them to discover a new Rome art scene generation: some already established and other emerging ones — such as Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli — exhibiting for the first time.

Silvia Iorio, <em>Universe #69</em>, 2012, from the <em>Odysseia</em> series, 2012. Courtesy of Galleria Il Segno, Rome — Silvia Iorio, *Universe #69*, 2012, from the *Odysseia* series, 2012. Courtesy of Galleria Il Segno, Rome

The exhibition installation phase, at which the artists were constantly present, provided a major opportunity to form new relationships and transform the two MACRO Testaccio pavilions into a dynamic artistic workshop. This is one of the directions MACRO director Pietromarchi has taken: it suffices to think of his creation of the Open Studio, the first artist residencies established by a Rome museum. Most of the works on show were produced by MACRO with the aid of the artists and in some cases their gallery representatives. The aim is to acquire them for the museum collection with the assistance of Amici del MACRO [Friends of MACRO].

Alessandro Piangiamore, <em>La cera di Roma</em> [The wax of Rome], 2012. Courtesy of the artist, Magazzino d’Arte Moderna, Rome and UBI Banca Popolare di Bergamo, Bergamo. Photo by Giorgio Benni — Alessandro Piangiamore, *La cera di Roma* [The wax of Rome], 2012. Courtesy of the artist, Magazzino d’Arte Moderna, Rome and UBI Banca Popolare di Bergamo, Bergamo. Photo by Giorgio Benni

Re-generation talks of Rome. The exhibition showcases people who were born and who live in the Italian capital or have stayed there long- or short-term. The underlying theme can be traced back simply to geographic provenance: might this be a weak point of the show? We are left to wonder whether other links between the works of the invited artists might not be traced, exploring how the city has influenced them and driven their research, for example.

At the moment, this is left to the visitors while awaiting the catalogue, soon to be published by Quodlibet, with contributions by Roman critics and curators chosen by the artists to comment on their works. Perhaps this substantial collection of thoughts will help us take initial stock of the local art scene, in the hope that Re-generation will become a regular event, with different curators challenged each time to define new landscapes based on the city of Rome. Emilia Giorgi

Through 9 September 2012
Re-generation
MACRO Testaccio
Rome

Re-generation

At the MACRO Testaccio, the sheds of a former slaughterhouse become the setting for works produced recently, or especially for the occasion, by thirty artists aged between 20 and 30.

Latest on Art

Latest on Domus