S-Tiles -

The Comune di Roma bought some of the sketches directly at artistic events, competitions, awards and exhibitions. In other cases the company Nestlé Italia donated the drawings used in the project. It was an interesting operation made possible by a substantial co-operation among different players. Artists, administrators, sponsors, material and manpower suppliers have all been involved in producing these public works. This has resulted in a still on-going process –that has had an impact on the architecture of the stations but also on the communication of the public body that has promoted the initiative.

Art becomes a connection and, at the same time, a signal: the single stations are identified by the art installations and represent recognisable fragments within the entire underground network. At the Spagna station the marine forms of the roman artist Piero Dorazio, who promoted the ‘formalist manifesto’ in 1947, look like they are floating in blue water and find an echo in the precise and shining circles of the American Kenneth Noland. The painter Joe Tilson, coming from English pop art, filled the Ottaviano station with little yellow, blue and red squares; while at the Magliana station it is possible to enjoy the amiable forms dancing along the corridors made by the Hungarian artist Lossonczy Tamas.

Curiously, D’Orazio stated that the murals have been better accepted in the quiet peripheral stations than in the crowded ones downtown. For instance, at Anagnina (the last station beyond Cinecittà and a connection point for commuters towards Ciampino, the Castelli Romani and destinations like Genazzano and Palestrina), just outside the elevators there is an oblong blue panel with orange spheres by the Milanese artist Luigi Veronesi. In front of this is the panel with curly waves by the Russian Mikhail Koulakov. This provides an international touch that has liberated the capital from its provincial attitude. It has also contributed to public transport’s having gained in real and perceived quality.

These works have transformed the grey and gloomy concrete walls into a mix of chromatic elements and abstract images. The transit of the thousands of passengers who every day crowd the A and B lines is definitely more pleasant today and the decorations impede graffiti, making this section of the Rome subway a kind of ‘stop by stop art gallery’.