The Rome Quadriennale – a website with no artists, and no artwork.

I’ll be going back to Italy after the summer – and I’ll be there for a while – so I thought I’d take a look at what the Italian contemporary art world had to offer. 

2020 is the year of the 17^th edition of the Rome Quadriennale. Venice has the Biennale, Milan the Triennale, but Rome only gets to do it every four years – guess it’s just bad luck that this year we’re in the middle of a global pandemic. Despite the risks posed by Covid-19 however, the management of the Quadriennale have decided to go ahead with this year’s edition, which means the Rome Quadriennale may well end up being one of the most important “in presence” art exhibitions anywhere in the world this year. And I’ll be just up the road. 170 miles up the road, but still. I thought I’d check it out.

I’ve been to the Rome Quadriennale only once, back in 2008, and I enjoyed the entire experience. First of all, it’s held at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, in the centre of Rome, and it’s almost worth the trip just for the chance to visit the building – with its soaring ceilings and marble columns. And Rome, of course, is fabulous. The architecture, the food, the weather – which by the end of October, is perfect – blue skies and a comfortable 22 degrees. My friend and I strolled from our hotel to the exhibition centre, walking through Piazza Navona, passing the Pantheon, stumbling, as you do, upon the Trevi Fountain, before arriving at the grand neo-classical façade of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni – where we lost ourselves for the rest of the day, our horizons broadened by the visions of the artists on show, our perspectives challenged but their conception of the world. I got to know a lot of new artists that day. 

In anticipation of this year’s edition, I wanted to do some research into the artists, to get an idea of themes they would be exploring, the materials they would use. I looked on the website – www.quadriennalediroma.org – navigated from page to page, getting more and more angry as I went. How could the website of one of Italy’s most important supporter and promoter of contemporary art be this bad? The exhibition had been announced two weeks before – and yes, we are in the middle of a pandemic – but they’d had 4 years to get this right. 

I don’t even know where to start to explain to you how bad it was. The home page didn’t mention when the exhibition starts or when it finishes. It didn’t say where it’s held or how to get there. And most importantly, it didn’t name the participating artists. There was just the logo for this year – a big pink icon with the Italian word Fuori in different sizes. Fuori means outside, outward, beyond. But it is also slang for bat-shit crazy. 

A term I would use for the main piece of PR on the site being a 1 hour 41 press conference, which when I watched, had had only 58 views. Ten minutes in and I could see why. Old men in suits talking at great length while saying very little. More 1980 than 2020.

You click on the icon, hoping to find pictures of the art that will be on show come October, and all you get are photos of the curators and the director. And then another link to more photos of them. And still no sign of a list of the actual artists, or their art. And even on the page which lists all the Rome Quadriennales since the very first one in 1931, when you click on 2020 – nothing happens. The link is broken. 

‘At least let me see what was on show in 2016,’ I thought. And this time my mouse-work was rewarded. Below the list of the organisers and curators, and a wordy description of the event itself, I found the artists. ‘Finally, some artwork!’ But I spoke too soon. For here too the links were broken, and not just in 2016, but in 2008, in 1999, in 1955. All the art work is missing. A website for one of the most important art events in Europe, and all there is, are words.