Login
Registered users
At the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, visitors can explore the 18th Quadriennale d’Arte until January 18, 2026. The project is promoted by the Ministry of Culture, the Lazio Region, Roma Capitale, the Chamber of Commerce of Rome, and the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity, in collaboration with the Palaexpo Special Company.
The exhibition features two main shows: “Fantastica – A Plural Map of Contemporaneity” and “The Young and the Masters. The 1935 Quadriennale.” The unifying thread is the exhibition design conceived by the BRH+ studio, which has created architectural spaces that turn the venue into a genuine narrative experience.
The main exhibition, “Fantastica,” takes its title from an idea by Luca Beatrice, president of the Quadriennale, who passed away prematurely in January 2025. Beatrice envisioned this edition as “a climax of wonder, freshness, and hope capable of offering unexpected interpretive filters and unforeseen ways out of reality.” Spread across the entire ground floor, the show presents a portrait of the current Italian contemporary art scene through five autonomous sections, curated respectively by Luca Massimo Barbero, Francesco Bonami, Emanuela Mazzonis di Pralafera, Francesco Stocchi, and Alessandra Troncone.
With 54 artists born between the 1960s and 1990s and 187 works—many of them new or site-specific—the exhibition covers more than 2,000 m2. Each curator offers a distinct perspective: Barbero explores self-portraiture; Bonami focuses on freedom and independence; Stocchi’s untitled section reclaims the centrality of the artist; Mazzonis reflects on photography as a language of revelation; and Troncone’s “incomplete body” examines human and non-human forms as evolving narrative fields.
The Fantastica installation is conceived as a dynamic, non-hierarchical narrative device that reconfigures the building’s original rigid layout, creating new spatial relationships and perspectives. For instance, the central rotunda connects fluidly with the side halls, enabling open, alternative paths. BRH+ transforms the monumental spaces into an open landscape, where artworks breathe and visitors experience a living cultural journey.
The second floor of the Palazzo hosts “The Young and the Masters. The 1935 Quadriennale,” curated by Walter Guadagnini. This historical exhibition celebrates the 90th anniversary of the 2nd Quadriennale of 1935 — considered the most significant Italian art event of the 1930s and the moment that established the Quadriennale as a permanent institution.
The tribute revisits one of the foundational moments in 20th-century Italian art history, highlighting the dialogue between generations and the relationship between “young artists and masters.”
For this section, BRH+ has chosen a deliberately different approach: an extroverted and linear layout inspired by the color palette of the original 1935 architecture. Paintings, sculptures, and archival materials—selected in collaboration with the Foundation’s Archive and Library— unfold in a clear, sequential path, enhanced by a large-scale photographic frieze that intensifies its visual impact.
With a budget of €2.6 million, the 18th edition of the Quadriennale restores Rome’s most authentic vocation as a space for vision and shared thought, where historical roots become “living material” for the future.
Photography by Agostino Osio – Alto Piano Studio, courtesy of Fondazione La Quadriennale di Roma
