When you meet the founders of what is currently Rome’s most unusual gallery space, you first go to the gelateria. Enjoyment is a must, says 33-year-old Georgia René-Worms, unmistakably artistically dressed in a black jacket with the Courrèges logo and a black velvet dress. Colin Ledoux, 52, is just as stylish in a gray striped suit with a black silk tie, a cigarette at the ready.
Ice cream in hand, head towards Terzo Fronte along the old city walls. The art space is located in Rome’s working-class district of San Lorenzo, a good quarter of an hour behind the main train station Termini and away from the tourists who have been gradually pouring into the city again since March.
When the cast-iron elevator door opens, the next surprise comes: Terzo Fronte is not a white gallery space, but a sun-drenched apartment. “Since October 2020, we had actually been toying with the idea of founding a publishing house or building something along those lines,” says Colin Ledoux. “But when I moved into this apartment, we immediately noticed that this had potential.”
A living room like a conservatory
Because the approximately 65 square meter apartment not only has nested rooms with the typical Italian terracotta tiles, but also a large living room that resembles a winter garden and opens the way to a huge roof terrace with a view of Rome’s city wall and the tracks to the main station.
“We wanted to address the politics of contemporary art,” says Georgia René-Worms about the starting point of her project, “and we said to ourselves: the best way to talk about it is not just exhibitions, but also a place to meet artists record them, have them produced and organize meetings to network and introduce them to the art scene in Rome.”
The art in view: Between the plants there is space for art installations
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Bild: Third Front
Unlike the business and financial center of Milan, with its large galleries and urban spaces, Rome’s contemporary art scene is only just emerging. Here you are still more likely to stumble upon a Michelangelo or Raphael than to see daring young art.
Terzo Fronte therefore seems like a small oasis. Instead of personal belongings, each room in the apartment is filled with sculptures, paintings or striped metal triangles, which creates an unusual intimacy. Almost as if you were secretly visiting art.
In mid-March the exhibition “La Méditerranée” by Mateo Revillo and Edgar Sarin is on its last legs. A man-high sculpture made of four aluminum columns is resplendent in the living room, and the roof is filled with artichokes, which are traditionally part of Roman cuisine. Geography and ritual play an important role in the work of French artist Sarin, who was recently on the cover of Paris’ Center Pompidou magazine. “In a performance for the vernissage, he built a clay oven with earth from Umbria and grilled a whole lamb,” says Colin Ledoux during the tour. “It created a community.” So Terzo Fronte is more of a hub than an exhibition space.