Casal Bertone: Tantalizingly close, yet nearly Unreachable

Casal Bertone.  A stone's throw from bustling San Lorenzo. Closer to Stazione Termini than the Vatican or the tourist mecca of Trastevere.  But no one goes there, and hardly anyone (even Romans born and raised) knows about this quartiere, which is sometimes referred to as Portonaccio, after the wide street that spans the area's western flank.

Always start with coffee

So close to the heart of Rome, yet so isolated. Ringed on the west and south sides by multiple rail lines, the Verano cemetery, and an old freeway, the Tangenziale, from which the Autostrada plunges east/southeast, right under Casal Bertone.

So it's hard to get to, and had to get out of. You can access the place from via Prenestina, but it's a long walk.  Or--as we did one morning on the scooter--from via Tiburtina: south (right) on via di Portonaccio, right at the big fork onto via De Dominicis, where we found a fine coffee bar, equal to any in the more upscale neighborhood of Monteverde Vecchio, where we've living for the month of May.

Underneath, the Autostrada

Turning right (south) out of the bar, the first sight is a large roundabout--almost a piazza. Moving counterclockwise, a massive metal screen hiding the Autostrada entrance as it passes beneath the town.

The building in the distance is a prize - and has a "legend" to go with it.

The centerpiece of the piazza is a housing project on its south side, graced by two striking bronze deer on pedestals to each side of the main entrance. After some 70 years, it's a wonder they're still there. Glorious. The story goes that the deer once had horns, and that the people who live in the building, so the story goes, had been called "cornuti"--meaning you're being cheated on, by your spouse.  So, one day, one of the residents sawed the large horns off the deer.  And now, no one can call them - or the residents - cornuti.


Inside the project a young man was weeding the stones (an uncommon sight) around a fountain, guarded by two eye-catching, snarling wolves.  Down a ways, a large fir tree on one side, and, on the other, a Madonella giving thanks for the survival of the building's inhabitants during the allied bombing of 1944 that took over a thousand lives in nearby San Lorenzo--and the rest of the war (below).  Note, too, that the stairways to sections of the buildings are differentiated, marked with letters, creating interior communities.


We also should mention that the intellectual filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini set the most iconic of Rome films, Mamma Roma (1962) with Anna Magnani, in this housing project.

The Madonella

A bit further to the south, there was a lot going on along via Casal Bertone: a very old building, holding out against the future; the construction of a new public market (or so we thought); some interesting urban graffiti; a leftist poster (Se Non Ora Quando, left) enjoining youth to take action, as right-wing thugs toss a person off a building balcony--an event that actually happened many years ago, in another part of Rome.  YouTube has several videos on the confrontation between right- (Casa Pound) and left-wing groups in Casal Bertone.

Shades of Hadid!

And, near the eastern end of the street (above), a stunning modern housing development in the latter phases of construction, elements of it reminiscent of Zaha Hadid's MAXXI.  We were surprised to see it here, in Casal Bertone.

Baptismal by Ugolino da Belluno, 1995

East on via Casal Bertone is the Piazza Santa Maria Consolatrice.  A public park with large play areas for children fills the square, and across from it, a church, vintage 1940s.  The column-work inside is
worth seeing, as is a side chapel in mosaics accomplished in 1995 by church artist Ugolino da Belluno.  The apse mosaics, of 1960s vintage, are also interesting, as are the columns on each side, decorated with repeating phrases. In the left side aisle there's a bronze statue of Padre Pio, both his outstretched hands revealing stigmata.














Casal Bertone has some tree-lined shopping streets, on which we found clear signs that the community's soccer team is AS Roma, as well as evidence of the poster presence of the right-wing organization, Casa Pound (photo right).  Ghoulish stuff.  Makes one wonder what they have in mind.

On the southeast side of the quartiere, an industrial building--above, center--has been re-used as artists' studios.  You can go inside and poke around--even talk to the artists.

Just one morning in the "real" Rome--Rome the Second Time.

Bill

Artists' Colonies in Rome, Part 2: Piano Creativo ("Creative Floor")

Silvia Codignola was the first artist at Piano Creativo, and the only one of the original artists still there.

Artists hard at work:  that's the portrait of the artist colony we found at the end of the No. 8 Tram line, "Casaletto."  "Piano Creativo" (the "creative floor"), as the group refers to itself collectively, is testament to contemporary art being alive and well in Rome, despite decreasing support from the City or State.

Discussing their work with Luis Serrano, Flavia Dodi and
Sonia Cipollari - in Serrano's bright studio

On a Tuesday morning in June, six of the artists gave us some background on the artists' studios on one floor of a school, showed us their studios and many of their works - done and in process, and made us coffee.  What more can one ask?

The 1950s school building that hosts the artists' studios.

The artists generally (the exception is interesting and noted below) have not known each other before renting studios in the building, and only occasionally show their work together - one or two "open studios" each year.  The artists tend to come and go over time. The building was built as a school on private land owned by the Tozzi family- their "tenuta," or semi- rural land holdings in this southwest corner of suburban Rome.  It's an unusual early-1950s structure with enormous glass windows that are ideal for artists' studios, and interesting, given that the school was once a school for the blind.  In the '90s, with less demand for school space, some of the building was re-purposed; part of one floor was designated artists' studios.   Rent is reasonable - Euro 500-600/month for one studio, and the studios usually are shared by 2-3 artists.  There are a dozen artists now, and 8 studios.   As the photos reveal, the studios range from clean and well-organized to crowded and rather messy, what one would expect from a group of artists. 

Serrano with one of his "Bedding" series.

As Sonia Cipollari and Luis Serrano explained to us, almost all of the artists here have no other jobs and work hard all day, 5-6 days/ week, at their studios.  Historically, artists' studios were once on via Margutta, near the Spanish Steps, as portrayed in Roman Holiday and where the rents went sky-high as early as post WWII.  Then artists moved to other areas, such as San Lorenzo.  But artists now tend to be in collectives on the outskirts of Rome, such as Portonaccio, about which we wrote last year, and this area, at the outer end of Monteverde Nuovo.

Sonia described the "golden age" of contemporary art, in the late '90s until about 2003, when the City funded studios and shows.  No longer.  Now, we have heard, artists who want shows usually have to pay for the space, the opening party, the publicity, the catalog; something few contemporary artists can afford.  

Cipollari showing her water color technique.

      















Now artists depend on cultural institutions, such as Temple University's Rome campus, where Shara Wasserman has curated shows of independent artists, including this group.  Wassernman, who now has her own Web site, is perhaps the most knowledgeable curator of contemporary art in Rome.

Dodi describing her chromatic approach.

And, of course, to the art:  all of the work we saw at Piano Creativo was of a high level.  Luis Serrano showed us work from a recent show, "Bedding."  Flavia Dodi explained her mysterious paintings, some in black and white, others in "beautiful" color.  We sensed she prefers her more monochromatic pieces. Marcello Toma works with machinery and gears, in a neo-realist, post-Futurist vein, while his studio mate, Stefano Bolcato is using children's toy pieces (listen up, Fisher Price) to explore themes such as domestic violence and homosexuality.  Sonia Cipollari works in the difficult medium of watercolor on somewhat slick, slightly transparent paper, making her fascinating projects time-consuming, she told us.  We were particularly drawn to Silvia Codignola's sculpture and paintings, the latter evocative of the existential themes and styles of the 1930s and of the California work of David Hockney..  She uses a type of manikin figure to portray domestic scenes.  

Toma and work in process.

Cipollari shows photos of the sets for HBO's Rome series.

The exception noted above to the artists knowing each other before renting studios here is a group of 3 who worked together painting interior walls and ceilings, both de novo and restorations.  They had a successful project painting the Cinecitta' sets for the HBO Rome US TV series.  

The artists at Piano Creativo are open to visits. We suggest going during a weekday, perhaps between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.  Take Tram 8 (now beginning at Largo di Torre Argentina, but shortly to begin at Piazza Venezia) to Casaletto (end of the line).


Bolcato points out the "wedding portrait" tipped over in his
scene of domestic violence.

Immediately on the right, at No. 420 viale Gianicolense, access "artisti" on the citofono by using the up and down arrows, and then press the bell sign below.  There's an elevator: they are on floor "2" , but 3 floors up, because you start on floor 1.    The Web site is: http://pianocreativo420.blogspot.it/.  There are links there to the individual artists' Web sites as well.

Buon viewing.  Dianne

From Codignola's domestic series.

An artists' colony thrives in a Rome industrial suburb

Contemporary art in Rome seems to get better and better.  One marker is a group of artists who have studios in an old warehouse in a decidedly unfancy Rome suburb - Portonaccio.

Pinzari with her horse sculpture made of her own hair.

We spent a great afternoon talking with about 6 of the artists, and visiting their studios.  The art ranged widely, including "sculptures" with her own hair by Francesca Romana Pinzari.

We also were fascinated with Seboo Migone  who does large oils and also small sculptures.  He posed for us with both (above).

di Silvestre easily talked about his work with Dianne

The subjects, as well as the painting, by Maura di Silvestre (above) might have been our favorite.

And, perhaps most interesting are the blue beds by the felicitously named Veronica Botticelli.

And there's more.

 The artists have been "found" by the powers that be.  The first to recognize them as a group and give them publicity was Shara Wasserman, who is a professor of art history at Temple University in Rome and also an independent (and, we say, the best) curator (see Shara's new Web site at http://www.contemporaryrome.com).  More recognition came when perhaps the most famous of Rome art critics, Achille Bonito Oliva, curated a show for them  (and got the publicity and produced the catalog).  That show, complete with a glossy program that is lovely in itself, brought more recognition (and visitors, like us).

The artists

The area is definitely of the run-down, but not dangerous or macabre, variety.  One contemporary describes it as "a bridge over a railroad, a quarter of poor people."  It's not hard to get to with public transportation, and interesting in itself for truly local shops and people.  Take the 409 bus from the Tiburtina bus station.  Portonaccio, and particularly the area where the artists work, has been surrounded and in some ways very compromised, by transportation - rails, thruway exits, wide fast with fast-moving traffic, etc.  It was an industrial area pre- WWII, but it also sparked an artistic group after the war - "the group of Portonaccio" - in a way, harbingers of the current artists.

the "condominio" - ordinary from the outside

You might be able to find some artists at work, as we did - but it was special, almost open-studio, weekend.  The building is at via Giuseppe Arimondi 3.  You can also try emailing viaarimondi3@gmail.com

The artists refer to themselves as "in condominio" - in other words, working together and renting together in a common space.  Recent articles in the Rome newspapers indicate they are still making waves, and are represented in efforts to enhance - or perhaps just support - Rome's contemporary art community.
Dianne