A project of urban regeneration that overlooks the structural aspects to focus strongly on the cultural ones. RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts legally recognized by Miur, when planning its education and research in the art field for the academic year 2019/2020, has decided to focus its resources on the realization of a project aimed at improving the quality of life in the San Lorenzo district of Rome. This initiative involves all of the departments of the University: Visual Arts, Design, Graphic design, Comics and illustration, Photography, Cinema, Visual and innovation design, Multimedia arts and design, both for Bachelor and Master programs. The objective of the experience, called “identity place branding San Lorenzo”, is to create an operational model which, by implementing precise and specific guidelines, can then be used also in other areas of the Capital and beyond. RUFA, combining talent and education, has involved a community of over a thousand people in the project, including students and lecturers: the aim is to restore the future of a generation that is passionately asking for concrete actions to be taken for the neighborhood and the city of Rome.
“The visual identity of a territory – explains the Director of RUFA Fabio Mongelli – can only be effectively conceived by mobilizing the citizens. The project that the Academy proposes does not intend to “beautify” the neighborhood through a design that is “top-down”, but to mobilize it, through the sharing of specific objectives, such as those of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development promoted by the UN. The final goal is to unite a community to achieve important results in terms of culture, environment, social and productive innovation: growth in the sign of sustainability for all of the players in the field”.
“The reason for this choice – points out lecturer Enrico Parisio who coordinates the various activities – is very clear. San Lorenzo is a typical neighborhood: students, residents, companies, businesses, local businesses, artisans, artists, commerce, restaurants, and hospitality interact with each other in a not easy coexistence. It is therefore necessary to determine a path that is not only that of mutual respect, but also to relaunch the neighborhood. There are too many news that have marked the memory of San Lorenzo and obscured its past of resistance and cultural redevelopment. Not to mention the enhancement of art and crafts”.
On Friday the 21st February at 6 pm the presentation of the project will be held at RUFA Space, Via degli Ausoni 7, in the heart of the San Lorenzo district, inside the cultural hub of Pastificio Cerere.
