Rome's New Contemporary Art Space Opens with 'Les Tribus de l'Art'

The Galerie communale d'art moderne et contemporain in Rome, Italy, inaugurated its new exhibition space from April 25 to October 7, 2001, with 'Les tribus de l'art', a group show curated by critic and theorist Achille Bonito Oliva. The venue, built in the former Peroni brewery near Porta Pia, fills a gap in Rome's contemporary art scene, as the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna focuses on Italian art from the mid-19th century. The exhibition adopts the postmodern concept of 'tribes' to present international contemporary art movements from the second half of the 20th century, including Lettrism, Situationism, Fluxus, Viennese Actionism, the Factory, Japanese groups Mono Ha and Gutai, and techno and video art tribes. It traces the roots of neo-avant-gardes in historical avant-gardes. To account for unclassifiable artists, the curator invented the parodic figure of 'tribal chiefs without tribes', including Yves Klein, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Louise Bourgeois, and Italians Schifano, Pistoletto, and Boetti. A catalogue was published by Skira.