Rome, April 2015. On Easter Sunday, gallerist Gavin Brown inaugurated Rirkrit Tiravanija’s exhibition in Sant’Andrea de Scaphis, thus realizing his dream of reopening the doors of the small oratory in the Trastevere neighborhood which had been deconsecrated and closed for decades. Just a few invitations, lots of word of mouth and a meal offered to artists and passers-by, prepared and served by Tiravanija himself. From that moment on, the space has hosted memorable exhibitions by Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Joan Jonas, Mark Leckey, Sturtevant, Arthur Jafa, Laura Owens – to name but a few – as well as Jannis Kounellis, met shortly before his death, and with whom Gavin Brown formed a strong association, inaugurating
Founded in the 9th century, the Church of Sant’Andrea de Scaphis today houses a magical space, where present and past intertwine, born from the vision of a gallerist who loves to remember that those historic walls existed before us and will exist after our passage.
