The catalogue is the perfect synthesis of the exhibition INSIEME, a project conceived by Gianni Politi and realized with the support of Ghella, promoted by Roma Capitale, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali.

After the difficult pandemic period it became necessary for Politi to express the strength of the city of Rome and its cultural ferment.

He thus imagined appropriating the Aurelian Walls to exhibit the works of 19 artists, selected by him as curator, to build a dialogue between monument and contemporary. The catalogue recalls a brick belonging to the Aurelian Walls.

Texts by:
Enrico Ghella, Gianni Politi, Matteo d’Aloja, Maria Vittoria Marini Clarelli, Maria Gabriella Cimino, Paola Chini, Lorenzo Fornaciari, Achille Bonito Oliva, Salvatore Lacagnina.

“We believe in art because it imagines contexts and opportunities that are rationally unattainable It allows us to look elsewhere, it generates empathy, it speaks a universal language.”

- Enrico Ghella | President and CEO of Ghella

“Via dei Rutoli faces a well-preserved portion of the walls, in its secular stratification, and this is where Gianni Politi, after moving his studio, chose to invite eighteen artists ad moenia, to climb the walls "insieme" (together), choosing this adverb as the title of this singular event. Hung so as not to even scratch the monument, or arranged where they can be viewed or sought out, each one of which maintaining its independence, the works make up a pattern that leaves room for many possible interpretations, no matter their arbitrariness.” 

- Maria Vittoria Marini Clarelli | Sovrintendente Capitolina ai Beni Culturali

“I think that art, for it have a function - and I don't think it has a specific one - is precisely that of disorienting, of exiting from the chronology of a linear time.
The artist can pass from one dimension to another: time is subjective and personal. I believe that Rome is a city that has created a great problem for artists, a problem that I dealt with in the exhibitions I curated: mainly "Contemporanea" in 1973. Using the spaces of the past for contemporary art creates a short-circuit between an architecture that was already experienced and the works that instead belong to our own age, including that of the viewer: this is why I use the word disorienting. Organizing an exhibition on the Aurelian Walls to my mind means perceiving the flexibility and the suitability of the place: it allows you to take advantage of the dead but in a positive way. If you are determined and have an idea for the display you can realize it without their permission.
This is an apt abuse of power by the artist, who this way can enter a space of the past in order to bring it back to our present.”

- Achille Bonito Oliva 

“I imagined this exhibition like one big mosaic of various artistic experiences, that when looked at with just one gaze can become something even greater. Something that can overcome our individual researches and individualities to eventually make up a universe of intimacy and shared desires.” 

- Gianni Politi | Curator

“Insieme (Together) is a reassuring title. It expresses a need that underlies an absence. For the artists it is a way to converse. I personally believe it is the formula required to overcome the profound crisis we are going through. When this pandemic crisis finally ends, and it will end soon, it will be followed by faded memories and change that is still hard to fathom. This exhibition will serve as a warning about how we reacted.” 

- Matteo d’Aloja | Image Coordinator

“I like to think that in this symbiosis between contemporary art and monument, the term "Insieme" (Together) does not so much describe the sum of two factors as it does the simultaneous manifestation of two dimensions in time: this way the present will be supported, in the manner of a gallery wall, by a wall of the past, no longer a blank one, but characterized by stories and by history.” 

- Lorenzo Fornaciari | Archaeologist, PhD graduate student

The Artists:
Maurizio Altieri, José Angelino, Micol Assaël, Elisabetta Benassi, Joanne Burke, Alessandro Cicoria, Stanislao Di Giugno, Rä di Martino, Giuseppe Gallo, Vostok Lake, Emiliano Maggi, Marta Mancini, Andrea Mauti, Nunzio, Lulù Nuti, Alessandro Piangiamore, Gianni Politi, Pietro Ruffo, Delfina Scarpa.