Ludovico Pratesi on His Career Turning Point: Founding Spazio Taverna

Curator and critic Ludovico Pratesi describes his career turning point as a shift from individual to collective practice during the 2020 Covid lockdown. Collaborating with Marco Bassan in Graziella Lonardi's apartment at Palazzo Taverna in Rome—where in the early 1970s Lonardi hosted one-night exhibitions by artists like Joseph Beuys and Gino De Dominicis—they founded Spazio Taverna, a curatorial platform that reactivates historical sites with contemporary art. The platform has since produced projects including 'Esperienze' at Palazzo Taverna involving artists, curators, fashion designers, architects, literary critics, pastry chefs, and volcanologists; invited Enzo Cucchi and Antonio Marras to interpret Cecco d'Ascoli at Forte Malatesta in Ascoli Piceno; reactivated Gubbio's medieval identity with the Biennale di Gubbio; curated Murales on silos at Piazza Venezia; and managed We Love Art and We Love Science with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Premio Arte Circolare with Conai. Pratesi emphasizes the novelty of moving from an individual, egotistic work mode to collective, intergenerational design—common in architecture but rare in art—allowing contemporary art to engage with diverse professional worlds and the public. Spazio Taverna also founded the School of Vision, a research center to develop visionary capacity, inspired by Lonardi's ability to merge the innovative spirit of the 1970s with the Renaissance.