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Rome, the new spring offers culture
The Assessore alla Cultura, Gianni Borgna, describes this ideal journey through Rome, from the Olympic Stadium to Ostia, through architectonic, literal, historical and social impressions and outlines the city we will be living in within a few months.
Piazza del Fante
In this slip of earth between the buildings and the Tiber I may wait until I know that I am ready, one day or another twenty years little changes ………. This square with its trees is called Piazza del Fante.
(Marco Lodoli, I fiori)
“Roma, a path. My ….. as a text and a motive to describe the city of yesterday and today. From two points of view. That of a boy, born in San. Giovanni, moved to the Balduina and a student at the ‘Mamiani’, and that of an Assessore alla Cultura. The starting point? Piazza del Fante, something metaphysical and visionary together belonging to my youth. The bus going to the stadium arrives at Piazza del Fante. We are going through Prati, Delle Vittorie and the Olimpico, an area that became famous in the films of Nanni Moretti and the literature of Marco Lodoli, in his romance I Fiori. My father who was a great sportsman but not a football fan, accompanied me to watch the Lazio football team with bus no. 90. He just had to. Just like all fathers when their sons discover football and get fond of it. We got off at Piazza del Fante: I remember exactly how rarified the space was, the silence, the stillness of the atmosphere, the ability to liven up because of the game and emptying out straight after…. It is not by chance that I am starting my journey here. In this same area, where people led a mere suburban life before, between sport and residents, a major cultural centre is now being created, a symbolic place where the magnetic points will become the Auditorium and the new Galleria d’Arte Contemporanea, designed by Zaha Hadid per the Caserme of via Guido Reni.”
The Auditorium
Music is so important that you have to even love the bad kind, which has no place in the history of art but is immense in the sentimental history of society.
(Marcel Proust)
“On the 21st of April 2002, on Rome’s birthday, it will be inaugurated. Two of the three halls, designed by Piano, will be opened – those with 700 and 1,300 seats. At the end of the following year, the one with 2,860 seats as well. The next birthday of Rome will therefore be very special. There will be concerts of the classics, jazz and other musical genres throughout the whole day starting from the morning. The first will, of course, be the Santa Cecilia Orchestra directed by Chung. A kind of celebration! Rome has been waiting for its Auditorium for a long time and because there are such great spaces and so many occasions that are offered there, a major challenge will be launched.”
Galleria d’arte moderna
Truth in art is the unity of a thing with itself: the outward rendered expressive of the inward: the soul made incarnate: the body instinct with spirit.
(Oscar Wilde, De Profundis)
“Le Caserme in Via Guido Reni, destined to house the new Galleria d’arte contemporanea (to be added to that of the Arte miderna di Valle Giulia) are accompanied by another artistic feature, already purchased: the ex-Peroni a municipal area for many uses and not only for exhibitions. A quantity of arts which will greatly enhance the area.”
Via Ripetta – Piazza del Popolo
… I felt my chest opening out to the air, to the light coming in from the two large windows near the river,. Monte Mario could be seen in the distance and Ponte Margherita and the whole of the new suburb, Prati as far as Castel Sant’Angelo; you could see over the old Ripetta bridge and the new one being built nearby; further on, the Umberto bridge and all the old houses of Tordinona following the wide bends of the river; in the distance on the other side, the green hills of the Gianicolo rose with the Fontanone di San Pietro in Montorio and the equestrian statue of Garibaldi. (Luigi Oirandello, Il fu Mattia Pascal).
‘A place of magic – the centre, made immortal by the pages of Fu Mattia Pascal by Pirandello. Who may forget the little room where the protagonist was living in via di Ripetta? Piazza del Popolo will become the high-class salon of the city. At the beginning of the summer, it will house the Don Giovanni by Mozart which the Opera Theatre is preparing for its own billing, directed by Gigi Proietti and with Gianluigi Gelmetti on the podium.
The idea is to bring lyrics into the heart of Rome, open the piazzas to the public, to a culture that does not need loud-speakers at high decibels. At a short distance, we can reach Piazza Navona, another Roman must that, apart from the picturesque population of Street Artists and stands which tempt us, Palazzo Braschi will be opened again on the side facing the ex-stadium of Domiziano. Palazzo Braschi has been the seat of the Museo di Roma and when it is restored it will be accessible for the great part of next spring. It will be visited by an international crowd of visitors who will be able to enjoy the splendid view offered by the higher stories.
Testaccio – Ostiense
…The lights are already being lit, illuminating Via Zabaglia, Via Franklin, the whole of Testaccio, bare in its great lurid mount, the streets along the river, the black depths beyond the river, that Monteverde accumulates or disperses, invisible on the sky.
(Pier Paolo Pasolini, Le ceneri di Gramsci)
“I continue my ideal journey. I pass the Fori and Circo Massimo. I arrive in the places where Pier Paolo Pasolini, not a Roman, but an excellent interpreter of a particular Rome, filmed Accattone. How can you forget the death of the protagonist on the Testaccio bridge? The waltz of the Toppa? Not to speak of the references to the literature of Elsa Morante. This area, also including Ostiense, is starting to become a real and proper cult space, full of events, bars, places to get together. The Centrale Montemartini also exists and has been operating for some time. This is a place dear to artists, excellent for shows, performances, meetings and presentations. Nearby, still being reconstructed but already accessible, the ‘second theatre’ of the Stabile, called India, now under the direction of Giorgio Albertazzi, who has just been made responsible for the Teatro di Roma. Lastly, around the Gazometro, there will be the main entrance to what will be the Città della Scienza (the scientific and cultural contents have been defined by the work of a consortium presided over by the Nobel Prize winner Renato Dulbecco). Let us not forget that the area of the Mercati Generali, will move thus freeing vast areas facing the Ostiense. This will become a cultural mini-zone with shops, libraries, information points, small theatres, professional studios and services. With the inclusion of the ex Mattatoio, a large space, the majority of which will be managed by the Terza Università, Testaccio and Ostiense, with their authentic Roman and popular spirit, to be found in the centre of a European type of frenzy.”
Eur
Cum tacent clamant (acclaiming through silence).
(Marco Tullio Cicerone)
My journey is going towards the sea. I arrive at Eur, a most beautiful place, designed by great architects. It is however still cold, unpopulated and too quiet. It is in the centre of a project of re-use and restoration which will, in the meantime, offer the Romans the Palazzo dello Sport having 13.000 seats and provided with perfect sound proofing for rock and pop concerts. The Velodromo will also have a new look, to be managed in collaboration with sports and culture. Following the attendance of young people and sportsmen, this structure will come alive again and, consequently, the life of the Museo della Civiltà Romana will be advantaged, where the Museo del Planetario (uniting the old Planetario della Stazione and the new one, purchased by the Sapienza) will also be housed. The Museo Pigorini and the other cultural institutes in the area will also gain attention.
Ostia
The sea. I am like you, full of hostile voices and my singing vessels are called years.
(Guillaume Apollinaire, Le Sirene)
“Ostia, a part of Rome, a coast has gained importance again, during the last few years until it became fashionable. A source of antique impressions like the Teatro Romano di Ostia Antica (I agree with the idea of Albertazzi to re-launch it to a high level through seasons of great classic theatre); the seat of contemporary shivers such as the death of Pasolini, still alive and present. Ostia has as well an excellent future, already in course. The great library of Rome, although rather poorly advertised, is always full of users and covers 2,000 square meters and is provided with modern multimedia supports. It rises in front of the sea and has an incredible view. Among other things, it houses a photographic exhibition of the limestone areas of Pasolino promoted by the Municipality of Pordenone. A second theatre in Ostia is going to be inaugurated in the area of the ex-Colonia ‘Vittorio Emanuele III’, abandoned during the winter despite its magnificent position. It will among others offer prose performances as well as music, seminars, press conferences organized together with the library. Associated with the Meccanica Romana. A multi theatre rising at the actual entrance to the town, completes cultural activities of major importance for Ostia. My journey ends here, on the beach , where it is even easier to speak about the coming spring - a spring lasting a year.”
Spring in Rome
We were in spring and spring has no enemies.
(Athos Bigongiali. Le ceneri del Che)
‘Rome will live for a day, the day of the 21st of April when it may consider itself the cultural capital of the world. The inauguration of the Auditorium, one of the major areas at an international level destined for music and theatre, will invite all the performance halls to remain open and offer occasions from the morning to the night. The restored Palazzo Braschi in Piazza Navona will also be part of the Auditorium event.
( … an ideal dialogue. The city will be born again and will start off from the areas which have been considered until yesterday the peripheral ‘belt’. They are offering culture but also the opportunity of arranging shows and work, in the modern sense. In the sense that may be called social’).
(Taken from ‘Il Messagero’ December 31st, 2001 by Rita Sala.)
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