Romanae Antiquitates is the name of a collection of archeological objects coming from a dig that the Soprindenza Archeologica di Roma carried out between 2001 and 2003 inside the penitentiary of the Istituto penitenziario di rebibbia Nuovo Complesso.
The dig has brought to light a cistern and two necrcpolis' that date back to the period between the first and fifth centuries A.D.
The few tomb accessories found were formed for the most part from objects in ceramics and in glass. In the necropolis was found a dump from which came the exhibits. that is, fragments of various types, among them an amphora for wine, and one for oil, fired ceramic (for cooking foods) and ceramics for the table (for consumption of foods and drinks).
The setting up was done inside one of the corridors which is an entrance to the prison;
In the space which hosts the collection are positioned also panels with information telling the history of the Rebbibia territory from prehistoric times to today.
The cabinets and supports for the panels have been done by the carpentry shop of the prison ; the walls of the corridor have been painted with frescoes by the artist Vincenzo Montini with a decoration freely inspired by pictures of the Roman epoch.
In 2004 the Province of Rome sponsored a training course for "Archeological Excavation assistants and maintainers of green areas" directed to detainees on the project of Lillo di Mauro and carried out by the Cooperativa Cecilia in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma and Eccom which has been responsible for the didactic course and scientific direction.
At the end of the course it was decided to undertake the restoration of materials coming from the dig in order to set up the museum;
To the project of museumisation of finds, finanzed by the Administrative direction of the prison, with the didactic drection of Cristina Da Milano of ECCOM archeologists, restorers and architects with detainees who have attended the training course have carried out the restoration of the finds and the supports for insertion into cabinets, and the drafting of texts and creation of didactic panels supervised by Paola Filipppini of the Soprindenza di Roma.
Romanae Antiquitate is a path of the soul.
It is a way of participating in the pleasure of research of one's own roots, in the history of men which at times seems uncatchable like the sound of the voice;
In the laboratory closed behind bars of steel which break the light and the heart, where rises the echo of the complaints of men alone, the innumerable fragments of finds steeped in ancient sweat that with the touch evaporates are recomposed in a basin and evoke the history of the place where the prison rose and which invades and cuts the atmosphere.
The attentive face at work and at the discovery of men in reclusion curious and astonished in front of the form which makes assume the innumerable nameless fragments. In their hands forms follow, shout out, are recomposed in a basin, an amphora, a vase or a jar encrusted with evaporated oil; forms which bud like corollas and become occasions of blackmail, of liberty of soul and heart. It is like collecting from the earth a grain and finding a diamond in one's hand, an alchemic process which transforms thought, desire, dream.
It is to that fragment that the daring smile of a whole warrior sends back on legs wide apart with the mature fruits of sex that push the suit of armour as a loaded branch pushes towards the sky; it is here that there is the museum, my idea of recovery soaked with sweetness, passion, attention to emotions. My deepest desire is to underline always elegance and beauty.
This museum is a tenacious attempt to cast a magic light among the dark spaces of the physical and mental prison, a wish to purify and render men noble through a lyrical communion that offers petals loaded with scent.
Romanae antiquitae leaves traces that entangle us in a spiders web, and chills the spine as we read, like breathing in puffs of pollin.
The finds are objects that belonged to slaves, thousands of years ago, and today recomposed by detainees that in this work, even not knowing how to say why, are reflected and recounted as in a piece of prose.
My idea of planning envisages the history of men in a new form where the word is more luke warm, slips away from the level of writing and of narration to assume a character which represents immediately with few chips complex games of sense and sound. So we can reconstruct a hortus conclusus in the museum della Civiltà Romana, professional courses for specialised workmen in archeological digs, the museum, the reconstruction of the ancient route of the Via Francigena from Radicofani to Rome are a messa in luce of underground energy so as to amaze and amaze me.
The visitor to Roman antquities as to a Roman garden is nothing but a witness, one who makes of a banal and squalid camminamento/corridor of prison or disused courtyard coloured places of images and sounds.
They are courses that represent for me all those that work in way to retrace itineraries that already have seen us and still see us in prison beside those who suffer for the loss of their liberty, tense for the dream even when all appears mean and stormy.
I believe it is beautiful and salutary to visit these places, I do not say for pleasure, but I know that it is possible to find something which annihilates and makes disappear demonstrative lucidity of facts and consequences, a nitidness which takes away from the truth of things the weight, renders it immediately aesthetic carries it to temperate and acute levels of pleasure because it reflects my, our,way of being and operating with all the limits which this obviously brings.
So I see this work unique in its kind in Italy and Europe a work where recovery of artistic heritage and recovery of persons who commit crime belong to the same design for a better world.
