In August I was in the centre of Rome, looking at churches and doing what tourists do, when I literally stumbled upon the above exhibition, tucked away behind the Piazza Navona. Unknown to me the exhibition was showing more than fifty artworks by Pistoletto, one of the leading figures of the Italian Arte Povera movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Arte Povera combined aspects of conceptual, minimalist and performance art, making use of found objects and everyday materials (eg old rags and newspapers) as a way of ‘subverting the commercialisation of art’.

Rome is of course full of beautiful ancient Roman, medieval, renaissance and baroque masterpieces of art and architecture, there is something to be seen around every corner and inside every church, so it was refreshing to see a well curated exhibition of contemporary art even though I was surprised that I had not known about it in advance. The contemporary art scene in Rome is changing for the better but compared to other cities in Europe (eg London and Paris) I would suggest that it has a lot of ground to make up.

There was an added bonus at the Chiostro del Bramante, an astonishing installation by Ian Davenport, a member of the Young British Artist movement and youngest ever nominee for the prestigious Turner Prize, an annual award to a living British artist. He is one of my favourite artists and it was a delight to see his work, Bramante Colourfall, installed on the main staircase and cloister of the building. an example of his poured painting technique.

What a fabulous day we had at a time of year when the centre of Rome is empty (if you can withstand the heat!).