Contemporary Cluster introduces new outpost in Rome

On September 23rd, 2021 Contemporary Cluster the space dedicated to interdisciplinarity and the pollination between art, architecture, photography, design, visual art, sound design, fashion design and much more — has opened its new headquarters in Palazzo Brancaccio, a noble palace built in the late nineteenth century and immersed in the greenery of the Esquilino district, an area of Rome that is experiencing a moment of rebirth after long years of decay.

Led by Giacomo Guidi, artistic director and curator of contemporary art, and by Giorgia Cerulli, architect and curator of the historical design and applied arts sector, Contemporary Cluster will breathe life into the spaces of Palazzo Brancaccio, alongside Andrea Azzarone's Spazio Field, to bring the city a new cultural and multidisciplinary center, which citizens will be able to re-appropriate and experience on a daily basis.

L'Africano — so named because it was once the archive of African historical artifacts of the National Museum of Oriental Art —with its 400 square meters and four rooms dedicated to young artists curated by Giacomo Guidi, has been inaugurated by "Semina", an exhibition by designer Sara Ricciardi presenting 38 large-scale sculpture vases inspired by scientific representations of seed enlargements and by the concept of birth, crafted by the artistic director of Ceramiche Rometti, Jean-Christophe Clair, in the company’s historical headquarters. Sara Ricciardi reinterprets human rebirth in a unique and original way through the ancient practice of sowing. For the designer, crying is synonymous with planting. The two actions, united by a common and extremely symbolic etymological root (in the Italian language), chase each other and are linked continuously in human destiny, taking part in a necessary formative process from which it is impossible to escape. The exhibition space is animated by a landscape made of ceramics and floral compositions created by the Roman floral designer of American origin, Dylan Tripp.

The founders of Contemporary Cluster share that they felt the profound need to expand the Contemporary Cluster project by developing the peculiarities that have characterised it since its inception, in greater depth. This new project will be the embodiment of collective intelligence, based on the cooperation of a community of people able to communicate with each other by overcoming the limits of individual cognition.

Contemporary Cluster will be a creative hub divided into different sectors, in which each discipline will find the right narrative space: on the ground floor Tube, a long corridor of 130 square meters, devoted to multimedia works and glitch art, accompanies visitors as they move towards the entrance of the exhibition space called the African. From September 23rd, Tube features the exhibition "Archivio Contemporaneo" curated by Visioni Parallele, which anticipates the release of the namesake magazine and springs from the research that the multidisciplinary studio has been carrying out since 2020. More than seventy artists will reflect on the concept of the archive in a hybrid and alternative narrative path.

Part of the sixth floor of Palazzo Brancaccio will welcome the Apartamento. Designed and assembled by the architect Giorgia Cerulli, the Apartamento investigates the modern dimension of living through the dialogue between historical design and leading contemporary brands and designers.

Apartamento will open to the public on October 15th, 2021 with the exhibition “Tout Brûle” by Luca Casillo (Di.loer Ceramics), a creative talent and artist of Neapolitan origins based in Paris with a background in: fashion design (Balmain, Giambattista Valli).

Lastly, Contemporary Cluster will manage the 2021/2022 artistic program within Spazio Field, on the noble floor of the Palazzo, with lectures, workshops, live unplugged book and magazine presentations, alongside a new lounge area with a high-end restaurant. To mark the occasion of the opening, Spazio Field hosted the Live Cinema Festival from September 23rd to 26th.

Three further exhibitions will open on October 15th 2021: "Talismano" by the painter Alessandro Sarra curated by Claudio Libero Pisano, "Stuck" a photographic exhibition by Cloro and that of contemporary design by Supaform by Maxim Scherbakov. Moreover, in the Sala delle Cariatidi, the designer Luca De Bona and the photographer Massimiliano Tuveri will present "Belvedere", a furniture collection with the author's photo printed on wood and inspired by nineteenth-century vedutismo, while Paulina Bebecka (Director of PostmastersRoma) will curate the exhibition series "The Worlds Within".