Urban renewal in frame as art springs from ruins of Rome’s industrial past

The ruins of a landmark industrial building in Rome have become home to a thought-provoking art project that casts an unflattering light on the capital’s patchy record on urban regeneration.

Sections of the abandoned shell of the Mira Lanza, once a factory where soap was first produced in Italy, are now home to a collection of works created by Seth, a French street artist who camped, illegally, on the rubbish-strewn site for two months last year.

Now looked after by a group of ethnic Roma migrants, who have set up camp inside the ruins, the paintings and installations created from the on-site debris are already starting to decay.

And that is exactly the point, according to Stefano Antonelli, a director of 999Contemporary, the not-for-profit organization behind the initiative.

Piled-up books, which initially appeared to provide a seat for a boy painted onto the brick walls of the listed 19th-Century building, have fallen over and now lie encrusted in mud on the soggy floor.

The paintwork on what was the re-creation of an empty swimming pool has been mostly washed away by the rain.

So why not touch up the paint, put the books back in place?

“This is the destiny of these works,” says Antonelli.

“This place has been abandoned since the factory closed in 1957. Since I was a little boy there have been plans to turn it into a museum, student accommodation, something.

“But nothing has ever come of it. So now, we are asking the question: what is the destiny of the Mira Lanza going to be?”

That such a prime site, located a short walk from the trendy downtown neighborhood of Testaccio and only a few kilometers from the ancient heart of Rome, should have been left undeveloped for 60 years would be unthinkable in most comparable cities.

There was a plan to rejuvenate the area as a drama college but those plans and most of the books went up in smoke when the building was ravaged by a fire that broke out after hundreds of squatters were forcibly evicted from the site in 2014.

Now Antonelli’s organization is attempting to persuade Rome’s mayor, Virginia Raggi, to help preserve the building.

But with her administration beset by more pressing issues, a resolution of the fate of the Mira Lanza does not look imminent.

Since I was a little boy there have been plans to turn (the factory) into a museum, student accommodation, something ... But nothing has ever come of it.” Stefano Antonelli, director of the 999Contemporary, which aims to preserve the building