Mario Diacono's Eccentric Career Celebrated at MACRO

The MACRO museum in Rome is hosting a focus on Mario Diacono (b. 1930, Rome), a self-described 'Poet Merchant' who defies easy categorization. Diacono, who prefers the term 'merchant' to 'gallerist,' has been a poet, critic, translator, publisher, anthropologist, and artist. The exhibition, part of the museum's 'Aritmici' series curated by Luca Lo Pinto, occupies a room on the first floor. It features Diacono's magazines (Bit, Ex, Continuum, Quaderno), his annotations to Ungaretti's translations of William Blake, travel artifacts from a 1962 trip to Africa, and documentation of his galleries in Rome, Bologna, Boston, and New York. Works by Vito Acconci, Enzo Cucchi, McDermott & McGough, and Donna Moylan are included, alongside a portrait by Francesco Clemente. A lecture by Bruno Corà on October 24, 2021, explored Diacono's role as a transversal figure bridging art and criticism. The exhibition closes on October 24 without a catalog, a noted omission.