The vernissage of the exhibition “IF SAN LORENZO WERE A COLOUR, WHAT COLOUR WOULD IT BE?” by RUFA artists and former students Marta Ferro and Claudia Rolando will be held on Friday 3 March from 4 pm.
The exhibition was set up at the ex Vetrerie Sciarra, in the heart of Rome’s San Lorenzo district, in the spaces currently used by La Sapienza University. This is the first experience related to the San Lorenzo Defence project. a complex and articulated plan aimed at building an advanced cultural technology district.
“San Lorenzo Defence” has been admitted for public funding under the Lazio Region’s DTC programme and sees the interaction, for the first time in Italy, in the field of research and production in the arts, of an Academy of Fine Arts (RUFA), two state universities (La Sapienza and Viterbo) and a company (Sicheo). A significant collaboration to pursue an action of urban and social regeneration, exploring the languages of the new generations, ready to interface with the neighbourhood in an open and direct manner.
‘Telling the story of San Lorenzo,’ explain the two artists Marta Ferro and Claudia Rolando, ‘was our mission, not an easy one. San Lorenzo is a district that never ceases to surprise and excite. A multicultural and multiform reality that is loved for its vitality and authenticity. The streets, squares, parks and hidden corners become the places where different cultures, ethnic groups and life experiences meet, confront each other and coexist. In order to make the inhabitants of the neighbourhood the protagonists of the project, we conducted numerous interviews in the field; among the various questions asked, one in particular intrigued us: if San Lorenzo were a colour, what colour would it be? We drew a portrait of each of the interviewees and then asked each of them which place most represented the neighbourhood to them. The dominant colours in the photos, green and orange, we chose after being influenced and inspired by the residents.
For many, orange represents San Lorenzo, the colour of its buildings, streets and architecture, a colour that is sunny, convivial and cheerful; green, on the other hand, refers to the district’s parks, to the image – perhaps a little idealised – of a time gone by, which many hope to see return even more lively and liveable. The individual person portrayed – deliberately left anonymous – and the place chosen by him or her turned out to be absolutely inseparable, the whole of them and the atmosphere they arouse in the observer remind us, as far as possible, of the authentic beauty of San Lorenzo».
The exhibition will remain open until 17 March. A unique way to be carried away by the emotions and magic of San Lorenzo and discover how this district can become a colour that will remain imprinted forever.
