Abstract

Giorgio de Marchis directed the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome from 1979 to 1981. Instead of attempting to increase the collection, as his predecessor Italo Faldi had done, de Marchis transformed the museum into a public service as a space of cultural mediation with the Public. Believing that the lack of recent works was justified by the ‘creative crisis’ of the period, he opened the Gallery once again to the contemporary, national and international context, allocating spaces not only to the exhibition of art works but also to the communication of cinematographic and theatrical experiences, advertising products, and urban and territorial planning. The paper offers a brief history of de Marchis’ direction starting from his cultural premises and his previous experience as an official i the same institution alongside Palma Bucarelli.