Homage to shut down cinemas in Rome
04/02/2016
The Portuguese Artist ±MaisMenos± is coming to Rome with an irreverent artistic installation
• ±MaisMenos± will be the fourth Portuguese artist invited by Forgotten Project, an urban art project aiming at highlighting those buildings in Rome that risk being ‘forgotten’.
• Since 2008, more than 40 cinemas shut down. ± MaisMenos± will spotlight some of them in the city center of Rome.
• Forgotten Project is halfway through and will culminate with an exhibition on MACRO - Rome’s Contemporary Art Museum – later this year
From February 19th the Portuguese artist ±MaisMenos± will be in Rome to do some artistic installations. These installations will be based on playing with typographic characters in front of some of the most iconic shut down cinemas in Rome.
Since 2008 more than 40 cinemas shut down. Only in the Trastevere area, iconic cinemas like America, Roma, Troisi, Pasquino closed their doors. The trend seems to continue as yet another historical cinema of Rome, the Alcazar, closed its doors a few days ago.
After having focused on dismissed areas, old factories and little stations, Forgotten is now paying homage to former cinemas, which nowadays have no function. Rome is well known for being a city of cinephiles: it hosts important cinema festivals, it owns the legacy of Cinecittà and it consistently inspires directors and cinema producers. ±MaisMenos±’s artistic installations -therefore – is going to play with words and sentences related to the connection between Rome and Cinema.
‘±MAISMENOS±’ surfaces in 2005 as a personal project developed in an academic research context. It quickly became a reference of creative interventions in Portuguese urban circles, due to its viral mechanics as well as the various media it wove itself into.
Initially, ±MAISMENOS± presented itself as a brand against brands, its utopian mission being the antidote to advertising: ± may be found as illegal marks over a wide variety of urban environments, just as it may surface as an art installation.
‘±MAISMENOS± is the visual representation of the collapse of the economic systems (+ – = 0), clearly conveying a standpoint in regards to it – while also acting as a blank canvas, a particularly open-ended icon where the citizen may be able to project anything they wish, fear or suspect.
As usual, Forgotten will propose a parallel activity to involve citizens: this time, a treasure hunt will be organized on Saturday night, 20 February, through Trastevere neighbourhood. The winners will get a print, inspired by Rome installation, signed and numbered by the artist.
Forgotten is an urban art project that aims to put in the spotlight some roman buildings that for reasons mainly related to the times, the expansion of the city, the changing of habits of the citizens have lost their function or have an uncertain future and risk to be “forgotten” despite of their central location.
Five urban artists of the Portuguese contemporary art scene, much appreciated in Europe and in the world, were invited to do their first artwork in Rome, on the facades of buildings selected in order to offer food for thoughts, both for the single building and the building type they represent.
This project, promoted by MACRo, is organized under the patronage of the Embassy of Portugal, the House of Architecture in Rome, the Cultural Department of the City of Rome, with the help of the Embassy of Portugal, the Cultural Institute Camões, and the fundraising campaign.
Technical Sponsor: Tap Portugal, Silkprint, Birra del Borgo
In collaboration with: Together
Pictures by Paolo Darra / Video by Leonardo Meuti
Curated by Hugo Dias and Alessandra Arpino