The exhibition ORIGINE gathers a set of fourteen architectural projects made of roman travertine, in the Basilica of Saint Clement in Rome

The expositive section dedicated to architecture, titled ORIGINE, gathers a set of fourteen architectural projects made of roman travertine, inside the quadriporticus of the Basilica of Saint Clement in Rome; a place chosen by the curator Luca Porqueddu to draw significant connections between the historic space of the sacred and new designs and forms of the art of building in structural stone. The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the University and the company of Mariotti travertine Carlo&Sons, that has supplied a technical and operative support for the realisation of the exhibited works. Setto reproduce the suggestion of the walls, these works of Francesco Cianfarani, Pietro Colonna, Filippo De Dominicis, Massimo Dicecca, Bruna Dominici, KURMAK (Laura Fabriani, Sante Simone, Alessandro Zappaterreni), Margherita Pascucci, Giorgios Papaevangeliou, Tiziana Proietti, Michela Romano ed Emilia Rosmini, Stefano Sciullo, StudioErrante Architetture (Sarah Becchio, Paolo Borghino), Gabriele Trövè, and Luca Porqueddu himself, offer fourteen different balances between static quality and aesthetics of the art of building, linked by common reflexions about specific qualities of the only stony material. Travertine, coming from caves that allowed the creation of the imperial Rome, and later of the stratification of the baroque city, becomes in this occasion the support of innovative and expressive possibilities. These possibilities have the independence and responsiveness to create a positive dialogue with the future and, by doing so, with history. Each of these exhibited works represents a regulating principle of hypothetical and subsequent architectonic buildings. They are able to take hold in the place they occupy and indicate possible evolutions of reality. With the sponsorship of the Jubilee of Mercy, the town council of Rome and the region Lazio, the exposition links its contents to the reflexion introduced by the Holy Year, identifying the theme of the masonry made of travertine as an example of constructive cohesion, founded on collaboration.
Inside the exhibition there are works created by different architects. Each artist is able to establish an independent planning reflection about the stone employment. All these works take part in the definition of a wider plan aimed to engage and to mould the physical and spiritual space of the Basilica of Saint Clemente. The choice to give to each shown piece its own dimension suited to human encumbrance is not accidental. That explains the way in which each detail has been put harmoniously together in the architecture of the body. This choice also describes the process through which the cultural relationships among different individuals create the society, as architecture is designed by ashlars of masonry compositions. The question at hand is truly apt for the architecture of this Basilica. The architectonic structure of it has gathered the variation of customs, faiths, and habits in a static and aesthetic equilibrium capable of surviving the languages’ utilization and the progress of time. The current structure of the Basilica, in fact, is what would come out of a progressive and joint effort, through which the materials, the techniques, the histories, and the different aesthetic perceptions have built an essential and recognisable architectonic communion.

ORIGINE

ARCHITECTS
Architecture Exhibition 
curated by Luca Porqueddu
20th April – 22nd May 2016
Quadriporticus Saint Clement’s Basilica
Piazza di San Clemente, Rome
opening hours_ 9.00 am – 12.30 am e 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm (excluding the mass hours)
inauguration Wednesday 20th April 
opening time for the press at 3.00 pm
opening time for the public at 5.00 pm – 6.30 pm (closing time of the Basilica)
the exhibition will be introduced by the conference
DIALOGHI su PIETRA_FRANCO PURINI – CALUDIO STRINATI
at 4.00 pm