Deredia - La Genesi e il Simbolo at the Roman Forum

Visitors to the Roman Forum this summer are in for an extra surprise - for the first time ever Il Foro Romano is hosting a contemporary art exhibition. The eight monumental sculptures in white Carrara marble by the Italian-based Costa Rican artist Jiménez Deredia are found along the Via Sacra between the Arch of Titus and the Senate and work so extraordinarily well in this context one hopes that this might become a regular exhibition space for site specific work by modern artists.

The charismatic sculptor was in Rome yesterday for the inauguration of both this exhibition and a parallel major show at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni dedicated to Deredia's ongoing sculptural project of creating nine groups of sculpture in nine countries on the American continent, stretching from Canada all the way to Tierra del Fuego, taking in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru and Chile on route - La Ruta de la Paz.

Other works by the artist are dotted about the city - Piazza Barberini, Piazza San Lorenzo in Lucina, the area just in front of the Colosseum and at the Auditorium Parco delle Musica – I'll be tracking them down over the next few weeks and will post photographs here.