What does it mean today to talk about spiritual? This question will be answered by a group of students of Visual arts and Photography who, in the next few days, will begin a training course in cultural mediation. The experience is the result of the synergy between RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts and Maxxi – National Museum of XXI Century Arts. The two institutions, founded a few months apart and which have recently celebrated twenty years of history, share a love for contemporary art, research and artistic production in general.
Coordinated by lecturers Emiliano Coletta and Antonella Conte, students Amedeo Longo, Carlotta De Martino, Giselle Cantonetti, Silvia Bottero, Laura Capriglia, Magali May Petrocchi and Cristina Cannistraci held a first meeting at Maxxi to define the modalities of participation in the project and above all the criteria of interaction with the public. The cultural mediator, in fact, is a professional figure who declines the needs of the artist with those of the visitor, developing a natural propensity to knowledge and sharing of the work.
Specifically, RUFA students will support the use of Yoko Ono’s interactive installation “Add Color” (Refugee Boat). The three boats in the room, which are intended to symbolize how love is stronger than fear, are placed next to cans of paint that range from white to navy blue. The public is invited to paint their hopes on the walls, the floor, on and inside the boat. As the days pass, the messages become confused, transforming space into chaos in layers. John Lennon’s widow’s project has travelled the world since 1961 and has broken into the debate on immigration. The exhibition is just a piece of the mosaic that composes the broader vision of the path “Of the spiritual matter of art”. The aim is to investigate the theme of the spiritual through the eyes of contemporary art and, at the same time, the archaic history of Rome. In the same exhibition are exhibited the works of nineteen artists from different cultures and backgrounds. In a strictly non-confessional vision, the exhibition brings together works of contemporary art with a selection of archaeological finds from the main museums of the capital: the Vatican Museums, the National Roman Museum, the Capitoline Museums and the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia.
