Guiding the students to interpret the identity of the territory through the image; creating a collective work of large format and visual impact; providing the knowledge for the understanding and practice of the linocut printing technique (xylography on linoleum): these are the three main objectives of the workshop “FUORIFORMATO – The big Tothem: collective xylography for San Lorenzo”.
The experience, curated by the lecturer Guido Lombardo, is enriched by the presence of Francesco Fidani who, during his career, besides dealing with illustration, founded the so-called “Tothem Tour”. It is, specifically, a project of itinerant printing that wants to take outside the walls of the laboratory – or rather with performances in the square – the technique of engraving and xylographic printing, elaborating for each event images that tell the territory. The “Tothem Tour”, until today, has covered about fifteen stages, contaminating Italy between expressiveness and originality.
Specifically, participants will learn how to manage the tools and basic knowledge of the craft press, so as to be able to replicate the entire process in an autonomous way. The project intends to be inextricably linked to the territory of San Lorenzo and then translated into a graphic narrative work, with text and image, entirely printed with a compactor roller.
In the first phase of the workshop, following a brief theoretical introduction, some preliminary exercises will be assigned, in order to allow a full mastery of the tools of engraving. Subsequently, each student will be called to create a “symbol” work, using the material collected during their research. Only during the last day all the dies will be assembled and printed on a single large format support impressed with the pressure of a mechanical roller.
The printing will take place at Citylab 971, a former paper mill on Via Salaria in Rome. CityLab 971 was born from the desire to regenerate a portion of the territory through the redevelopment of the structure in Via Salaria, welcoming and developing the ideas of other companies and individuals, with a refined and daily predisposition to involve
direct from the citizens. A requalification that starts from sharing, a multifunctional cultural pole open to everyone where art, music, sport, cinema, theatre and all the human activities that can be enclosed in the spaces of the structure can coexist.
The realization of the work will be made possible thanks to the Academy’s partnership with Tarkett group, which will supply the linoleum, and CGT – dealer Caterpillar, which will provide a machine to proceed with the printing.
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