Guglielmo Maggini | Hypothèse de lecture

z2o Sara Zanin is pleased to announce the participation of Guglielmo Maggini in Hypothèse de lecture, curated by Gaia Bobò and Teresa Ranchino.

 

From September 19, Trinità dei Monti will open the spaces of the Antica Biblioteca  to the public, as part of the historic complex that is finally becoming accessible following an extensive restoration. The space will be inaugurated by the group exhibition Hypothèse de lecture, curated by Gaia Bobò and Teresa Ranchino. The exhibition presents a selection of artists from the Italian and French art scenes, with particular attention to the contexts of Rome and Paris and to emerging artistic research. This event marks the beginning of a new cultural direction for Trinità dei Monti, strongly supported by its director, Marie-Pierre Dabadie, who entrusts contemporary art and culture with the task of interpreting the historical traces of this place.

Located above the altar of the church of Trinità dei Monti, one of the five French churches in Rome belonging to the Pieux Établissements de la France à Rome et à Lorette, the former library of the Minims convent housed approximately nine thousand volumes until the end of the eighteenth century. Today, the space stands empty and is adorned with one of the city's most monumental painted wooden ceilings. The dispersal of the library's holdings in 1798, together with the damage suffered during the revolutionary events, profoundly marked its history. An important restoration project, carried out from 2003 onwards in collaboration with the laboratories of the Vatican Museums, has restored the library's extraordinary decorative features, making its historical and artistic significance legible once again.

The exhibition is conceived as a tribute to the history of this place, reflected in the decision to construct a ghost architecture inspired by a library and conceived by Belgian architect Olivier Goethals. This “hypothesis of reading” stems from the desire to imagine a rewriting based precisely on the irretrievable loss of the library's written texts and collection, filling a void that the works of the invited artists reinterpret in imaginative ways.

Drawing on these ideas, the works enter into dialogue with the history and identity of the site through a number of critical perspectives: the relationship with processes of loss and the dispersal of memory; the relationship between word and image, with a focus on the investigation of writing practices and literary influences; and the generative dimension of destruction and fragmentation which, evoking the concept of spolia, takes on particular significance within the archaeological layering of Rome. The exhibition also seeks to highlight the echoes of Baroque aesthetics in contemporary artistic production, recalling processes of metamorphosis involving matter and the body, as well as the use of specific aesthetic devices.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive public programme of talks and conferences, developed in collaboration with the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for the History of Art, the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici, and La Società delle Api.

Hypothèse de lecture is promoted by Trinità dei Monti, with the patronage of the Municipality of Rome, and is part of the programme celebrating the anniversary of the twinning between Rome and Paris, 70 ans d’amitié - 70 anni di gemellaggio.

 

2 September 2026