Chi esce entra

A group exhibition curated by Simon Würsten Marin

Artists: Vincenzo Agnetti, Louise Bourgeois, Francesca Cornacchini, Jesse Darling, Eva Fàbregas, Tarik Hayward, margaretha jüngling, Thomas Julier, Tarik Kiswanson, Corrado Levi, Paul Maheke, Marie Matusz, Mónica Mays, Hana Miletić, Effe Minelli, Lulù Nuti, Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, Aurélien Potier, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings, Prem Sahib, Davide Stucchi, Grégory Sugnaux, Ian Waelder, Rachel Whiteread

In the heart of Rome, a building rich with a century of cultural history but now abandoned for thirty years is about to lose the traces of its past uses. How can art contribute to remembering what is about to disappear?

Through November 9, the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History presents Chi esce entra: A Tribute Exhibition to a Disappearing Building, a site-specific project just a few steps away from its historic headquarters on the same street. Reopening the doors of this derelict space to the public for the first time in three decades and just before its impending demolition, the exhibition gathers over twenty Italian and international artists working across sculpture, painting, photography, installation, video, and performance in a collective tribute to the building and its singular history.

Inaugurated in 1911 as a private gallery by the art dealer and collector Ludovico Spiridon, Via Gregoriana 9 has since undergone multiple transformations and served many functions over time. Most famously, it housed La Cage aux folles, an iconic club that captured the spirit of Rome’s vibrant nightlife in the 1980s, before falling into disuse. Today, the building stands as a contemporary ruin—tucked away in the historic center though not yet quite forgotten. With this ephemeral takeover, the exhibition brings it back to life and returns it to its original function as art gallery one last time before its radical remodelling into a new extension of the Bibliotheca Hertziana.

Chi esce entra approaches Via Gregoriana 9’s striking state of disrepair as yet another meaningful chapter in the building’s layered history. Bringing contemporary art into a poetic and sensorial dialogue with the architecture, the exhibition proposes an unorthodox gesture of memory while presenting a methodological counterpoint to traditional historiography. Through their physical and conceptual interaction with Via Gregoriana 9, the exhibited works of art—several of which were produced in situ—foster a critical and speculative examination of the politics of memory and cultural heritage in relation to architecture. Engaging with themes of decay, vulnerability, and intimacy, they reflect on how processes of memory and oblivion materialize in public as well as domestic spaces, ultimately contributing to shaping both collective and individual identities. 

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from a work by Vincenzo Agnetti of 1971, and provides an interpretive key to the project. The phrase Chi esce entra, literally, to exit is to enter, suggests that the end of something is always the beginning of something else. In this context, the disappearance of a building in its current form also initiates a new chapter in its history. The exhibition seizes this turning point as an opportunity to rediscover Via Gregoriana 9 and to create a lasting memory of it.

An integral part of Chi esce entra, the public program fosters dialogue between the public and the artistic and academic communities through live performances, guided tours, and a panel discussion taking place on the occasion of the release of the exhibition catalog. 

The exhibition is an initiative of Rome Contemporary, a research focus of Tristan Weddigen’s department at the Bibliotheca Hertziana, and is supported by the Max Planck Foundation.

Simon Würsten Marin is a Swiss-Spanish art historian, curator, writer, and lecturer based in Lausanne, Switzerland. 

The Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History promotes research in the field of Italian and global art and architectural history. The Institute fosters the training of outstanding researchers and offers the excellent resources of its library and photo library to international scholars.