ROME.- RETROFUTURE is the column of Museum for Preventive Imagination devoted to rethinking the museum’s collection in the perspective of a pathway in progress aimed at the newer generations, where different timeframes overlap to investigate the role of a public collection of contemporary art in the 21st century.

The backdrop of the evolution of this space is provided by the large wallpapers reproducing photographic portraits of the MACRO, shot by Giovanna Silva in the storerooms of the museum. The project, titled Catabasi, brings to light the works stored in the off-limits spaces where they are conserved, granting them a new-found visibility and triggering reflections on the status of the artwork in an era in which it is increasingly mediated by images. The survey has also activated the idea of a meta- collection, organized to gather a new nucleus of works by young Italian artists, until the end of 2023, in a stratification of generations and languages. Inside RETROFUTURE works and stories will accumulate in a catalogue without a fil rouge, becoming a collective dimension that defines a common landscape.

On 17 March 2023, new works by Monia Ben Hamouda, Beatrice Celli and Diego Gualandris joined those of Federico Antonini, Riccardo Benassi, Ruth Beraha, Carola Bonfili, Costanza Candeloro, Ludovica Carbotta, Giulia Cenci, Alessandro Cicoria, Gianluca Concialdi, Giulia Crispiani, Giorgio Di Noto, Roberto Fassone, Irene Fenara, Giorgia Garzilli, Lorenza Longhi, Eleonora Luccarini, Beatrice Marchi, Diego Marcon, Jim C. Nedd, Francis Offman, Parasite 2.0, Francesco Pedraglio, Margherita Raso, Real Madrid, SAGG NAPOLI, Davide Stucchi and Ilaria Vinci.

The sculptural diptych Denial of a Redwing Blackbird II and III (Aniconism as Figuration Urgency) (2022) by Monia Ben Hamouda combines technological production procedures and the practice of calligraphy to investigate the theme of figuration and aniconism, the prohibition of depicting the human and divine face as a precept of certain religions.

Beatrice Celli presents La Fontana di Smaragos (2021), a water fountain made of ceramic to invoke and materialize one of the five demons that, in Greek mythology, plagued the potter's artisan.

Paola (2023) by Diego Gualandris is a mobile device for changing light and visual perception that can be worn and activated by the audience or remain static and be observed from outside as a sculpture.