Art
Art
Every day, Aeroporti di Roma strives to guarantee its passengers a unique travel experience, overturning the paradigm that sees the airport as a mere point of arrival or departure. Today, the ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ airport stands as a 'diffuse museum' within which all forms of the huge Italian cultural and artistic heritage are enhanced, acting as a stage for the promotion of talent and as a showcase for the cultural and artistic events taking place in the capital.
Aaron Two Saints Deacon Martyrs (c. 1305-1310)
During the event celebrating ADR's 50th anniversary, three prestigious stained-glass windows were unveiled whose design, following strict stylistic comparisons by medievalist scholars, was attributed to Giotto, the master of painting: the great artist renewed the language of medieval art by overcoming the stylised Byzantine lexicon and developed a new style that would extend as far as the Renaissance with famous fresco cycles such as the Stories of St. Francis in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. The three panels depict the prophet Aaron, priest par excellence of the Old Testament, in the tondo, whereas the ogival ones show two deacons with tonsured heads, wearing dalmatic and carrying the palm of martyrdom.
Taken together, the three panels comprehensively meet the need to showcase the richness and complexity of Italy's artistic heritage to the large public passing through Rome Fiumicino airport and thus having the chance to enjoy these works of art.
The three illustrated stained-glass windows attributed to Giotto, accompanied by 'experiential' columns on which some of the high-definition photographic images of works by the great master are projected, thanks to their new location in the frame of Pier A, can be admired during the exhibition period (from 12 February until September 2024) by millions of passengers departing and arriving for national, European and intercontinental destinations.
"Vertigine" by Manuel Felisi
The journey, nature, tracks, day and night. These are the primary elements that emerge from "Vertigine", the work by the Milanese artist Manuel Felisi exhibited at Terminal 1 of Fiumicino airport.
An installation composed of two works positioned one in front of the other, made of many small canvases where, against the background of old interior decoration rollers worked with acrylic and resin, photos of trees that make up 'grids' are printed of horizontal and vertical black lines.
Natural Reaction by Marcantonio
Salvator Mundi by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
From 12 April to 31 August, Terminal 1 Boarding Area A hosted Bernini's 'Salvator Mundi', a sculpture owned by the Italian Interior Ministry’s Fondo Edifici di Culto (Worship Buildings Fund). This gave the more than 6 million passengers passing through the area the unique opportunity to admire this timeless artwork, including in guided tours open to everyone. Salvator Mundi is Giovan Lorenzo Bernini's last masterpiece and is usually exhibited in the Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura. It depicts the Blessing Christ in half-length: Christ's face, adorned with long hair, turns to the right with an expression of great serenity and majesty, and his right hand in the act of blessing is on the left side of his chest.
Deti
More contemporary forms of art are also explored at Fiumicino airport, such as Marco Lodola's 'Deti' (from the Cyrillic word for 'Children'), which, positioned at Pier A, is a tribute to Picasso's famous dove and, with its colours reminiscent of the flag of peace, is intended as a reminder.
Men and Gods in Ancient Ostia
Along the connecting structure to Pier A, passengers can admire seven sculptures and paintings, all original from the Roman period, along the exhibition route: 'Men and Gods in Ancient Ostia', a scientific project curated by the Ostia Antica Archaeological Park with the logistical support of AdR.
The works on display (a statue of Apollo, a statue of Sabina as Ceres, two statues of Nymphs, two frescoes with a horseman and a married couple, and a sculptural group of fighters) are representative of the artistic and figurative panorama of the ancient Roman colony, coming from urban monumental contexts and from the city's territory (Neptune's Baths, the Theatre, the Necropolis of Porto on Isola Sacra).
Images of time
“L'arte romana e il fluire delle stagioni” (Roman art and the flowing of the seasons): this is the title of the exhibition set up at Fiumicino Airport, thanks to the renewed partnership between Aeroporti di Roma and the Ostia Antica Archaeological Park. Passengers transiting through Terminal 3 Boarding Area E, specific for non-Schengen flights, can enjoy an exhibition itinerary to admire six artworks from the Roman era, five sculptures and a splendid mosaic, all from the excavations at Ostia Antica and the Sacred Island Necropolis. The exhibition starts at the foot of the escalator in the avant-corps of the building and continues on the third level. Its focus is Time, a theme particularly felt by travellers at the airport, where time has the rhythm of aircraft boarding and disembarking operations. A video in both Italian and English and explanatory plaques placed near the artworks explain passengers their subject, material, origin and date. The exhibition of works from the Ostia Antica Archaeological Park at Terminal 3 re-proposes the juxtaposition between the ancient and the modern experienced by those arriving in Rome, and ideally closes the circle of time of Rome, the heart maritime traffic of the Empire which over time has evolved into today’s Mediterranean hub. The sculptures have a special connection to the airport. Indeed, the area they come from was for centuries the arrival and departure point of ancient Rome's trade, thanks a port network capable of connecting with the entire then-known world. This same area now houses Leonardo da Vinci International Airport, the main hub for passenger traffic in Italy and one of Europe's largest hubs.
