The Society of the Bees Inaugurates its New Home in Rome
In Rome, it hasn’t simply opened a venue: a swarm has landed. The Society of the Bees shifts latitude and unveils in Via Gregoriana a house that functions less as an exhibition space and more as a social device. Founded and chaired by Silvia Fiorucci, the non-profit transforms the former rationalist residence of Vittorio Morpurgo into a porous habitat spread across two floors and overlooking an inner garden designed by Marco Bay. Here, the domestic dimension coexists with the exhibition one, in a balance that privileges the time of staying over that of visiting: exhibitions, a library, gatherings, but above all the possibility of inhabiting the space as a relational device.
At the opening the other evening, numerous figures from the worlds of art and design crossed paths, including Giovanna Caruso Fendi, Giorgio Andreotta Caló, Marianna Vecellio, Eva Fabbris, Francesco Manacorda, Anna Franceschini, Andrea Viliani, Massimo Bartolini, Carlo Antonelli, Francesco Stocchi, and Enrico David.
To mark the inauguration, a gesture as essential as it was powerful: artists, designers, curators, and critics connected to the Society of the Bees were invited to create an A4 paper contribution conceived specifically to celebrate the moment and the new space. The final effect? A constellation of personal signs turned into a collective archive. The evening was also punctuated by a performance by Heith with the Speaking Bows — sound sculptures poised between ritual and technology — which transformed the space into a field of listening.
Fiorucci spoke of the “start of a new chapter” and of a “collective migration toward Rome,” a movement that “places artists at the forefront.” More than a relocation, then, a true change of ecosystem: because here, art doesn’t occupy space — it inhabits it.
Text: Germano D’Acquisto
Photos: Benedetta Guidantoni
