the forbidding space around MAXXI on a chilly November afternoon

…which is the dramatic new Zaha Hadid designed ‘Museum of 21st Century Art’ (surrounded by an unfortunate expanse of endless shadeless tree-free unwelcoming concrete which seems to function mainly as a place from which to view the building) has done much to catalyze the contemporary art scene in Rome despite it’s hostility to most of the artistic activities it seeks to present.