Città Foresta – Le Cosmicomiche
CAP – Cities Art Projects collaborated on the creation of workshops curated and organized by Latitudo Art Projects for the Festival Città Foresta – Le Cosmicomiche, a project that won the Biennial Public Notice “Estate Romana 2023-2024.”
Città Foresta – Le Cosmicomiche is a traveling workshop-based festival that, during the summer months of 2023-2024, involved five neighborhoods in the city of Rome: Labaro, Laurentino, Corviale, Tufello, and Trullo. The festival is inspired by the figure of Italo Calvino, whose centenary was celebrated in 2023, particularly focusing on his collection of short stories Le Cosmicomiche, written between 1963 and 1964. The project featured a series of multidisciplinary artistic workshops in each of the neighborhoods, with the aim of fostering new connections and synergies between people and the urban environment through participatory art practices.
Our goal is to create spaces where art can break down barriers, encourage social interaction, and promote social inclusion. As always, CAP works with an open collaborative approach, involving artists, professionals, and communities to build a more vibrant and inclusive urban future together.
This edition of “Città Foresta – The Cosmicomics” was inspired by the concept of the “Comic” present in Calvino’s literature. Through artistic workshops and participatory processes, we explored the transformative power of humor and creativity, inviting participants to reinvent their relationship with the city in a playful and reflective way.
The Festival involved children and young people from five neighborhoods and featured artists such as Filippo Riniolo, Jacopo Natoli, Danilo Innocenti, John Cascone, Luis Do Rosario, Isabella Mancioli, Gaia Scaramella, Davide D’Angelo aka URKA, and the associations Pontedincontro and ViviamolaQ.
The workshops, designed to stimulate creativity, offered engaging activities for different age groups. These ranged from collective drawing to photography, mask-making to create new characters, and a radio and sound workshop.
At the end of the journey through the five neighborhoods, a grand Final Event will take place on September 27th in the Laurentino neighborhood at the Biblioteca Laurentina. The day will involve all the artists and associations who led the workshops, along with all the participants from the various neighborhoods. It will be a day of installations and performances, a collective narrative of the process developed over the months of the Festival, culminating in a final exhibition of the works created during the open sessions, which will be on display to the public until October 4th.
Città Foresta – Le Cosmicomciche, Courtesy CAP – Cities Art Projects © Paola Farfaglio, Marta Giannini, Beatrice Morino, Monkeys Video Lab
The Festival was primarily aimed at children and young people and featured the participation of artists such as Gaia Scaramella, Iginio De Luca, Luis Do Rosario, Isabella Mancioli, Jacopo Natoli, Danilo Innocenti, Davide D’Angelo aka URKA, as well as the associations Pontedincontro, ViviamolaQ, and A.I.Me.F.
The workshops covered a variety of artistic techniques, including collective drawing, photography, puppet-making, papier-mâché, percussion, radio workshops, imagination workshops, woodworking, and forest medicine walks.
At the end of the journey through the five neighborhoods, a large Final Event was held on October 14 in the Trullo neighborhood, between the spaces of VIII Lotto and Polisportiva Trullo. The day brought together all the artists, associations, and participants from the various neighborhoods who took part in the Festival. It was a day of installations and performances, a collective narration of the process developed over the months of the Festival, culminating in a final exhibition of the works created during the workshops.
Città Foresta – Le Cosmicomciche, Courtesy CAP – Cities Art Projects © Luis Do Rosario, Paola Farfaglio, Martina Nutta, Monkeys Video Lab