Client: The Untouchables Exhibition

Team: WAO + TARI + DPDW

This proposal was exhibited in Rome, Italy as part of the Rome Sustainable Architecture Festival “Change! Architecture, Cities, Life” organized by Open House, MAXXI and the Order of Architects, which was held from May 4th to May 17th, 2020.  The proposal was to reimagine the public spaces that are revered as sacred and untouchable.

The intervention reflects on how civilization has long awarded its greatest contributors with immortality. Whether cast in bronze or chipped from stone, they represent the virtues of their time, embraced by society. Today, nations across the world are removing these statues, by will or by force, as they remain symbols of our society’s suppression and demise.

A Proposal is made to use the disgraced sculptures as the building blocks for a new movement, on display as an acknowledgment of an ugly past and harnassed as the agent for change.

A walking path encircles the statue of Victor Emanuel II which stands in contrast with a newly set statue at the opposite end, a protester for social justice by Marc Quinn, demanding progress and providing inspiration to those around her.

The road to social justice is long and winding.

Location: Rome, Italy

Press:

Artribune: Boom of Architectural Events in Italy