Make Haste Slowly. Conversation Piece Part XI

Conversation Piece is an annual exhibition cycle organized by Fondazione Memmo and curated by Marcello Smarrelli to narrate the city’s art scene, particularly as regards the activities of foreign academies and cultural institutes, and to provide an overview of Italian and international artists who have chosen Rome as their place of residence, activity and work. Over the years, over sixty artists from all over the world have participated in the various editions.

The title chosen for the eleventh edition is a translation of the Latin expression “festina lente”, attributed by the historian Suetonius to Emperor Augustus and used to urge people to act timely but thoughtfully. In this age of rapid communication, this dialectic between speed and reflection becomes crucial. It also aptly describes artistic creation, which may emerge suddenly or mature slowly, but always through a meticulous and profound process of organizing knowledge. The perception of time, its measurement and its real or symbolic value in the creative process is the common thread that unites the works on display, created specifically for the spaces of the Memmo Foundation or presented for the first time in Rome.

The artists on display are Alicja Kwade, winner of the 2025-26 Rome Prize at the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo; Paul Maheke and Enrique Ramírez, both 2025-26 pensionnaires at the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici; Prem Sahib, 2025-26 Abbey Fellow at the British School at Rome, and Henry Taylor. Time and space in everyday life are the basis of Alicja Kwade’s installations, while Paul Maheke’s research questions identity and memory through the lens of history. Enrique Ramírez explores narrative forms in which dream and reality merge to transcend boundaries and historical periods. In Prem Sahib’s practice, time manifests itself as an emotional and spatial dimension rather than a chronological one, while Henry Taylor’s painting captures fragments of time by drawing on personal and collective memory and interweaving biography, culture and history.

Header: Enrique Ramìrez, installation view. Photo Daniele Molajoli