Quadriennale d'Arte 2020 'FUORI' Reimagines Rome's Palazzo delle Esposizioni with Critical Interventions

The Quadriennale d'Arte 2020 exhibition 'FUORI' at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, running until 5 April 2021, addresses the institution's fascist origins from 1927 through a curatorial approach by Stefano Collicelli Cagol and Sarah Cosulich. Architect Alessandro Bava transformed the interiors with ephemeral plasterboard to critique the space's violent magnificence, while Norma Jeane's light installation Corpo di fabbrica (2020) pulsed with breath rhythms at the entrance. Works like Cloti Ricciardi's Respiro (1968) and Tomaso De Luca's Die Schlüssel des Schlosses (2020) disrupted traditional gallery formats, with Petrit Halilaj and Alvaro Urbano's 7 aprile 2020 (2020) placing giant flowers on a fascist propaganda staircase. The exhibition featured dialogues such as Irma Blank's Bleu Carnac (1992) and Micol Assaël's Stone Broken Circuit (2016), alongside pieces by Lisetta Carmi, Simone Forti, Michele Rizzo, Sylvano Bussotti, and Salvo, exploring themes of body, environment, and transition. Inspired by Elsa Morante's novel La Storia and Walter Benjamin's ideas, the show aimed to redeem the past and blur institutional boundaries, set against a backdrop of national pride and pandemic mistrust in Rome.