On Saturday 3 October 2026, CapitoloVenti opens to the public. Conceived as an open and informal archive, the exhibition traces the history of Galleria 291 Est/Inc. in Rome through artworks, texts and photographic documentation.
Twenty years after its foundation, 291 Est/Inc. celebrates this important milestone by bringing together, in the form of an exhibition-archive, what has taken place within and around its space over the past two decades: the exhibitions and their installations, the artists and audiences, the collaborations, the post-opening gatherings, the encounters, the friendships and all the relationships that, over time, have helped shape the gallery’s identity.
Twenty years of research and activity in the historic neighbourhood of San Lorenzo thus become an archive to explore, consult and rediscover: a collection of artworks, images and documents in which the history of Galleria 291 Est/Inc. emerges as a web of experiences shared with the artists, with those who have contributed to its projects and with an audience that, season after season, has crossed its threshold.
The project has its roots in an earlier exhibition, held in 2011 at the end of the gallery’s first five years of activity and entitled CapitoloCinqu5. On that occasion, too, a collection of photographs formed the starting point for an unconventional and accessible archive: each image featured a telephone number on the back, making it possible to contact directly the artist featured in the exhibition or event being documented.
Fifteen years later, that same device returns in CapitoloVenti, transformed by technology and by the growth of the archive. Through a QR code, each image will virtually open one of the drawers in the gallery’s archive, leading visitors to catalogues, texts, photographic documentation and videos relating to the exhibitions that have marked its journey. Finally, to foreground the project’s exhibition dimension, the photographic and digital archive will be accompanied by a selection of artworks acquired by the gallery or donated by artists over the years.
This anniversary thus opens a new chapter for Galleria 291 Est/Inc.: a shared celebration that looks back on what has been while, at the same time, bringing it into the present through new perspectives and new relationships.