The deserted capital city, a metaphor for the opportunity to rethink cities, from urban planning to sustainable mobility

Webuild - Vive Institute exhibition open to the public at the Zanardelli Hall of the Vittoriano, from January 20 to February 28, 2023

 

• Photographic images of the deserted Eternal City taken during the months of lockdown as a metaphor of a new dimension of a city to be rediscovered

• Fine art photography protagonist of the “Rome. Silent Beauty” exhibition curated by Roberto Koch and Alessandra Mauro at the Vittoriano between January 20 and February 28, 2023

Rome, December 15, 2022 - Images of a sleeping Rome that enhance the city's soul, and aim to rethink environments and infrastructure from a new sustainability perspective. A project entitled “ROME. SILENT BEAUTY” that reveals the Eternal City during the months of lockdown in 2020. The initiative, promoted by Webuild and the Vive Institute - Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia – under the patronage of the Municipality of Rome, was presented today at a press conference attended by Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri, Webuild CEO Pietro Salini, Director of the VIVE Institute - Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia Edith Gabrielli and art historian Claudio Strinati, ahead of the exhibition's opening to the public at the Vittoriano, from January 20 to February 28, 2023.

The project includes a book published by Rizzoli on behalf of Webuild, and the exhibition organized by Webuild and the VIVE Institute, both based  on the fine art photography of Moreno Maggi, an expert Italian photographer of architecture and Industrial photography.

“The project – said Director Ms. Gabrielli – a virtuous example of the tangible possibility of a virtuous public-private collaboration, with the desire of engaging the general public with an immersive and attractive scientifically committed exhibition. The initiative reflects our lines of action with the intent to make us all reflect on the role and future of cities, and not just Rome, meeting complex challenges such as the  connection that exists between the so called urban centres and their suburbs”.

“During the lockdown - said Salini - we all had to face a very complex moment where Rome stared back at us in total silence. Today, we must be able to use the positive messages from that phase, so that our generation can win the huge challenges of the economic, cultural, infrastructural and technological challenges that we must face and that characterize our time. The images from this book show us a lab, a nude city and a marvellous machine that we live every day, which we must rethink starting from a new paradigm of a city that is more orientated towards the human dimension. ”

“Today, we are in front of extraordinary images that provide us all with the possibility of a new perspective on Rome, which is evermore dormant and never explicit, and which makes us think of the Caput Mundi city.  Silence and majesty emerge in these pages of a city that is unique, where everything coexists and lives, like the metro line that passes through Ancient Rome " added Mr Strinati.

The Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri closed the conference by saying "This beautiful book shows us a silent and majestic Rome which allowed to be even more aware of the uniqueness of our city and of its ancient beauties. A project that hands us an important contribution to make us all understand how to imagine and think about Rome and its future transformation. The city and its spaces have almost been freed from its people to be seen differently. We must all be courageous and imagine different ways of living in this city in the near future.