??.??. 2020

The studies carried out by the artist, aimed at conceiving a project that would relate the reality of Galleria Mucciaccia Contemporary and the Faculty of Architecture of La Sapienza University, led to the conceptual and graphic design of various solutions, starting from research and evaluations of the architectural and urban, historical and representative features of the site.

The initial idea, keeping the two aforementioned themes as the main vectors, places the fulcrum in the center of Piazza Borghese. In this first phase of the investigation, he thinks about the space, its extension and configuration, as well as its perception and use. The first design concerns a circular platform, with an upward evolution, in the form of a walkable spiral: a walkable and dynamic stage machine, but also a stage dedicated to the audience, in an open theater, the square. A volume, then, that lies between the two protagonists, the Athenaeum and the Gallery, and is shared by them in its creation and development. Already in this first concept, the construction of the structure is understood as participatory work, through the involvement of students – an aspect that is kept constant in the following proposals. The second point, on the other hand, that of interactivity – thus this form would have triggered the movement of the viewer, not limiting him to its boundaries and thus to observation, but inviting him to act within it – would have corresponded to an ideal of connection with the gallery, in relation to the installation and on two levels (hypothesis maintained in later elaborations).

From urban space to architecture. A second design hypothesis looks at the facade of the faculty and in particular at its termination, the roof terrace. In this new configuration, the entire façade is indirectly redefined and attention is drawn to the ideal connecting element between the physical and immaterial dimensions, between matter and space. This kind of external solution would then have a direct echo inside the gallery, with a modulated design for its space.

The ultimate vision presented here can be understood as the result of the two figurations described, while also fitting into a path that concerns Lingua’s recent elaborations entitled Contemporary Illusions. A participatory and installative work, placed on the stage of the Piazza, interactive in relation to the viewer and aiming high together with him. As for the material and the technical issue, this intervention uses innovative products, which allows us to show new solutions that are the result of the most current research in the field. Last but not least, this fiction can be well inscribed in the fabric of the city, in a contemporary, geometric, modular and minimal form. In this sense, the artist responds to a current urgency: the need to create points of reference and orientation in the current reality, in harmony with the memory of the past and respect for the context, its history and its identity.

Tiziana Tommei