Has futurism in Rome made its way into the hearts of Italians? Perhaps not

Two more months of the Futurism exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art: the extension for the exhibition, which was supposed to end last Feb. 28, comes after the Ministry of Culture found it to be a success. For Minister Alessandro Giuli, “Futurism has broken through in the hearts of Italians, who in these months are discovering or rediscovering the meaning and significance of one of the main avant-gardes of the 20th century.” There were a total of 103,593 admissions from Dec. 3 to March 2, and this “achievement,” says the minister, “is not only an exhibition success, but a confirmation that futurism was and still is a shockwave that shook the foundations of 20th century culture.”

Meanwhile, one thing needs to be pointed out: the exhibition had no separate ticketing from the museum, so it is impossible to know how many of those 103,593 visitors were really interested in the exhibition and how many visited the museum only to see the permanent collections. Or what little the exhibition left visible: as we pointed out in our review, Gabriele Simongini’s exhibition on futurism in fact involved the disassembly of a large part of the museum, and it took up about half of the fu Time is out of joint, with the consequence that those who entered the GNAM during this time had to do without seeing an important part of the permanent collection. We are not at the paroxysms of former minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, who in 2023, for the exhibition on early twentieth-century magazines at the Uffizi he strongly wanted, had even gone so far as to claim the million visitor milestone (nice strength: even then, there was no separate ticketing, and any visitor to the Uffizi was registered as a visitor to an exhibition that, moreover, the public found as soon as they passed through the entrance, even if they had the option of skipping it altogether), but still, it is worth reiterating that perhaps not all of those hundred thousand were really interested in the Futurism exhibition. Not all of them but, for the sake of honesty of analysis, for the most part yes: the Futurism exhibition in Rome must be credited with having revitalized the flows to a GNAM that had been languishing for some time (253,000 visitors in 2023, and then, minus the Covid years, 190,000 in 2019, 186,000 in 2018, 208,000 in 2017, 135,000 in 2016). Credit, however, to futurism? Of the constant batting around the exhibition? Of the controversy?

Most likely it is not only futurism that warms the hearts of Romans and Italians. It is not an uncommon occurrence to come across exhibitions capable of exceeding one hundred thousand visitors, or coming very close to it. In 2023, taking Il Giornale dell’Arte’s ranking as a reference, the Van Gogh exhibition in Rome, Palazzo Bonaparte (580 thousand), the Biennale d’Architecture (285 thousand), the exhibition on Leandro Erlich in Milan (180 thousand), the exhibition on Pompeii at the Capitoline Museums (131 thousand), the one on Banksy and Tvboy in Bologna (126 thousand), Bosch in Milan, Palazzo Reale (113 thousand), the Macchiaioli in Pisa (110 thousand), and came close to that onEgypt at the Palladian Basilica in Vicenza (98 thousand), the two exhibitions on Van Gogh and works from the Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam at Mudec in Milan (90 thousand each), the one on video games at Venaria (87 thousand) and the one on Max Ernst at the Royal Palace in Milan (86 thousand). Also in the rankings are the three exhibitions at the Galleria Borghese, but we feel like excluding them due, again, to the absence of separate ticketing.

As for the 2024-2025 exhibitions, since complete surveys have not yet come out, it is possible to refer to the data for now released by the press offices: the Hokusai exhibition in Pisa totaled 116 thousand visitors, the Picasso exhibition in Milan did 115 thousand, Botero in Rome attracted more than 200 thousand people, Helen Frankenthaler in Florence drew 75 thousand visitors, Federico Barocci in Urbino was visited by 80 thousand people, and the Monet exhibition in Padua recorded 180 thousand visitors. When put in context, the figures for the Futurism exhibition, considering also all the polemical tail that accompanied it and the continuous attention that every media outlet devoted to it, appear to be in line with expectations. In other words: even assuming that every one of the 103,593 visitors in the ministerial communiqué visited the GNAM specifically for the futurism exhibition, these are normal numbers for an expected, much-talked-about exhibition organized in one of the main museums in Italy’s capital. In short, we feel to say that it is not futurism that is breaking through the hearts of Italians: it is, if anything, art, it is art that is able to move people and fans, it is the possibility of seeing exhibitions that are not taken for granted that is the main lever that drives public response, it is the work that is done in preparation for an exhibition, it is the appeal that an exhibition exerts on the public, it is a whole sector that makes high numbers and is able to move hundreds of thousands of people.

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