Rome, a portrait is the first edition of a project that will transform, on an annual basis, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni into a privileged observatory on the visions and research of foreign artists and scholars who spend a period of residence in Rome every year, guests of the Academies and of the cultural institutes that have been based in this city since the seventeenth century.

In 1666, at the instigation of the French Minister of Finance Jean-Baptiste Colbert and Gian Lorenzo Bernini , the Académie de France was established , with the aim of welcoming young artists who won the coveted Prix de Rome.
In the eighteenth century Rome was a cosmopolitan city, a privileged destination on the Grand Tour routes, an international environment in which to complete one's cultural and personal training. On the French model, during the 19th century, cultural representations of numerous other countries were thus founded and some found their definitive location in the city following the Universal Exposition of 1911, which identified in the international cultural district of Valle Giulia a distinctive trait of modern capital. Even in the immediate post-war period, the foundation of other foreign research institutes is linked to the history - and the narrative - of the city.  

The representation of the landscape of Rome, starting from the pictorial genre of the view, is the premise and starting point of the exhibition , gradually being declined in different mediums and forms.  

The exhibition continues with meetings, performances and screenings hosted at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and with an invitation to take part in the exhibitions and open studios in the Academies and Institutes, which today represent places of encounter and contamination between paths, identities, languages, disciplines and communities able to tell the complexity of our age.