While the 80th edition of the ATP Master 1000 and WTA 1000 tennis tournaments are under way (concluding on 21 May) at the Foro Italico in Rome, the focus also spreads to contemporary art, with an exhibition created in collaboration with the MAXXI museum in Rome: Moderna.
The show appears in the locations of LEA, a hospitality format of sports and fitness, with Federazione Italiana Tennis e Padel, welcoming guests and sponsors of the tournament, opening for the first time in the rationalist building designed by Luigi Moretti from 1933 to 1937, and continuing inside the Central Tennis Stadium.
A dialogue between art and design, where the artworks are juxtaposed with pieces from the Moroso catalogue. The Casa delle Armi hosts the latest cycle of paintings by Gianni Politi (Rome, 1986): the works are set up in the restaurant, furnished with Impossible Wood chairs by Nipa Doshi & Jonathan Levien, and the lounge, where the protagonists are the Pebble Rubble sofas by the Swedish designers Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren of Front Design.
At the Central Stadium, four other artists establish a dialogue with the architecture of the four corporate spaces set behind the stands. In the Sala FIC (Foro Italico Club) the works by Andrea Sala (Como 1976) – Frutta bucata (2022), the triptych Piscine (2022) and La biblioteca (sospensione) (2020) – interact with a series of furnishings designed by Patricia Urquiola, for a contrast of forms and materials: the Pacific sofa, the Ruff chairs and the Gogan armchair; the designer Sebastian Herkner is also on hand with the Pipe settee, also produced by Moroso.
In the Sala Montemario Sud a selection of sculptures and paintings by Marta Mancini (Rome, 1981) creates a sophisticated setting, where the furnishings are the Gogan sofa and the Getlucky chairs, also by Patricia Urquiola. In the background, the Taba settee by the designer Alfredo Häberli.
In Sala Montemario Nord, a series of paintings on raw jute by Alice Ronchi (Milan, 1989), “Universe” (2022-2023), is matched with the Bohemian sofa and the Salon Nanà chairs designed by Annabel Karim Kassar, and the seating creations of Square, designed by Jonathan Olivares.
The itinerary ends in the Sala Presidenziale, where a composition of the Doodle sofa (by Front) is accompanied by recent photographic research on the Foro Italico by Giovanna Silva (Milan, 1980).
Photo © Serena Eller
