Outdoor is a festival created in Rome in 2010 with the ambition of transforming the city through cultural actions that move beyond traditional formats. Conceived as a platform for contemporary expressions and urban creativity, Outdoor embodies the spirit of a generation that remains deeply connected to its roots while embracing global influences. Over the years, it has evolved into a space where disciplines intersect, art, music, performance, research, offering audiences new ways of reading the urban landscape and understanding the cultural shifts taking place within it. Today, thanks to an extended network of international artists, curators, and producers, the festival stands as an influential stage in open dialogue with the world, constantly redefining how culture can activate cities.
In 2018, Le Grand Jeu participated in this vision by co-curating the festival’s main exhibition, taking place from April 14th to May 12th. The thematic focus that year centered on heritage, chosen in connection with the European Year of Cultural Heritage. This provided a fertile ground for exploring how memory, identity, and the traces of the past can be reinterpreted by contemporary creatives. The exhibition wove together different voices, local, national, and international, highlighting how heritage can be both preserved and reinvented.
Alongside prominent Italian and Roman talents, the festival invited a diverse group of international artists whose practices reflected the multiplicity of urban cultures worldwide. Among them were Kid Acne from the United Kingdom, Scorpion Dagger from Canada, Tony Cheung from China, Madame and Mathieu Tremblin from France, Berlin Kidz from Germany, and the iconic Ricky Powell from the United States. Their contributions expanded the scope of the exhibition, turning the 2018 edition of Outdoor into a vibrant mosaic of perspectives, aesthetics, and stories, an event that reaffirmed Rome as an active hub for global contemporary culture.
OUTDOOR Festival 2018 | Le Grand Jeu
Main exhibition developed in collaboration with Le Grand Jeu
📍 Mattatoio Testaccio, Rome (Italy)
🗓 April 14th – May 12th, 2018