On Wednesday, May 10, FOROF - a space dedicated to the dialogue between archaeology and contemporary art founded in Rome by Giovanna Caruso Fendi - presents Abriendo paso/Opening paths the performance by Cuban artist Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo (L'Havana, 1984) part of FOROF ESSENZA, a Special Season that connects in an experimental way the art of perfume making, the history of Rome and contemporary art.

The performance, curated by Veronica Siciliani Fendi, is linked to the ethical and social value of Freedom as is the entire program of FOROF ESSENZA, a project born out of the realization that nothing is more memorable than a perfume and a reflection on the loss of the sense of smell experienced by many in the pandemic period. With the involvement of Laura Bosetti Tonatto, among the most renowned noses in the field, the history of the Basilica Ulpia, a place where, through the public act of manumissio, Roman slaves could regain their freedom, was transformed into essence by tying together the history of Rome, the olfactory memory of the place and Art.

Wednesday, May 10, the artist Susana Pilar, whose work focuses on body, gender, race and social issues, with a particular interest in the reality of women and discrimination against them, activates a symbolic action of rupture that emphasizes freedom as a necessary condition for life.

Abriendo pasos/Opening paths it's a performance conceived in dialogue with the architecture and energy of the place, the historical weight of which played a decisive role: the theme of the liberation of slaves, perfectly reflecting the artist's idea that her body is an archive of ancestors deported from Africa and Asia, and beyond. "This work is about freedom and obstacles. - Says the artist - It pushes us to be determined. To defend ourselves, no matter what happens. It talks about breaking fears and understanding that there will always be barriers that challenge your mind but that it's up to you how you stand in front of them."

The documentation video, as well as works born from the performance, preparatory watercolors and the artist's previous videos (Historias Negras, El Tanque and Resistencia), will be exhibited by FOROF until May 28, 2023 as part of the exhibition No necesitamos muros/We dont need walls.

First Episode of the Second Season of FOROF's artistic-cultural experiences, curated by artist Alex Cecchetti on the occasion of SORTILEGIO, the site-specific exhibition created for FOROF.

Danza sulla mia fronte amore invites us to a loving union between body, spirit and nature in the archaeological site of the Basilica Ulpia on FOROF’s hypogean floor.

On Friday 10 March 2023, from 19.00 to 21.00, with Danza sulla mia fronte amore the artist presents the first of two Episodes that will accompany the exhibition until its closure.

The performance features two dancers performing inside the archaeological area, accompanied not by music but simply by the sound of their breathing and heartbeats. The dancers will wear skirts tailored and decorated by the artist, inspired by those of the Revolving Dervishes. Over the course of the evening, they will perform several times, so that the entire audience can enjoy the experience.

FOROF’s pre-opening involves a performance by the English artist Florence Peake. She will reactivate FOROF's cultural space in anticipation of the second art season with "Alex Cecchetti's Sortilegio" in November 2022, a site-specific installation which will also initiate FOROF's new cycle of Episodes.

A "Special Episode" heralding the second season of cultural activities scheduled from November 2022 at FOROF. Interior Pull, featuring performers Vanshika Agrawal, Flaminia Celata and Anica Huck, is a collaborative performance created by Florence Peak exclusively for FOROF, interacting with the archaeological site of the Basilica Ulpia on the hypogean level.

Recalling a burial ritual, through a process of encasement Peake will enfold a body in clay and then extract it, leaving as evidence a "sculptural shell" that will be exhibited in the space with other works by the artist until October 8th and then taken to the Laboratorio Piramide to be kiln-fired.

The artist's sensory emotions experienced during the process will become vocal scores, which will be amplified in the room from within the clay sculpture.

The "extractive process" feature of the performance leads back to archaeological finds that are brought to light after long years of waiting, referring as well to the mining industries that are depleting the Earth's resources after having exploited them. The human body becomes a metaphor for the extracted resources.

Florence Peake's artwork explores notions of materiality and physicality, addressing current topics such as queer strategies and the issue of climate change. Her artistic approach is sensual and witty, expressive and rigorous, chaotic and intimate. Her performances, in which the human body always plays a central role, are radical and extravagant, often irreverent, frequently incorporating drawing, painting and sculpture, generating interaction between dancers, audiences and sites.

"This Special Episode, although unrelated to the programming of the new second season, is an opportunity to reaffirm the brave and free identity of our cultural space," explains Giovanna Caruso Fendi, FOROF’s founder. "Starting from archaeology as an artistic profusion of history and beauty for our contemporary cultural production, we work to protect, enhance and promote; the goal of the FOROF benefit society is to operate in this important sector in an innovative, transparent and original way."

In collaboration with Richard Saltoun Gallery of Rome

For Episode 5 of LOVOTIC-X, Soundwalk Collective invites musician, producer and singer Lotic to present a live performance inspired by her latest album Water. A tender meditation on love’s losses and lifeforce, timelines, bloodlines and resilience. The shift to a fluid. Meaning “of, relating to, or living in flowing water”, Lotic evokes the necessary element of maintaining life. The live performance awakens a post-anthropogenic earth where new creatures have adapted to live on a planet fully consumed underwater. Can our cells adapt to a foreign new ecosystem, thrive and multiply?

Inspired by the notion of interspecies as a proposal of alternative human-nonhuman scenarios, hybrid iterations, defying of borders, Soundwalk Collective invites Invernomuto to present Black Med, Chapter III: a listening session and live performance that rotates around an imaginary and expanded Mediterranean Sea as a reflection of a timeless and spaceless map of human geography.

The Mediterranean Sea, once understood as a fluid entity aiding the formation of networks and exchange, is now the scenario of a humanitarian crisis and heated geopolitical dispute.

Following scholar Alessandra Di Maio’s adaptation of the Black Atlantic theory to the Mediterranean, Black Med aims at intercepting the trajectories that sounds trace passing through this protean area. Divided into different chapters, the Black Med listening sessions are based on a DJ set supported by a series of projected slides containing theoretical texts and backstories referring to the musical pieces, grouped by elegiac themes. The sessions explore different journeys of sound movement, touching topics such as alternate uses of technology, migrations, peripheries and interspecies.

On the occasion of the Episode 4, as a part of LOVOTIC-X curated by Soundwalk Collective, Invernomuto presents at Forof the third chapter of the Black Med listening session serie: Black Med, Chapter III — premiered in 2018 at Manifesta 12, Palermo — which approaches the Mediterranean soundscape from a scientific point of view, combining field recordings and obscure, fluids experiments in electronic music.

"A statistical analysis of this non-existing word “LOVOTIC” results in a combination of the words of the English human language love, lover, loved, lovability, lovages, lovebug, lovesick, loveless, lovelocks, loveliest, lovemaking, or lovelornnesses; and asymtotic, antibiotic, enzootic, erotic, exotic, idiotic, neurotic, hypnotic, monozygotic, narcotic, patriotic, pyschotic, quixotic, robotic, semiotic, symbiotic, or zygotic (…)"

from a text by Paul B Preciado

Fantasies of the Sea is an immersive journey that invites the viewer to investigate its existence on Earth and its relationship with the Sea. Consisting of a video projection, a ceramic sculpture and a performance, the guided tour tells the story of an aquatic mythology, a pelagic birth, which gives birth to a hybrid, genderless creature. Agnes Questionmark (Agnes?) will show herself inside a vertical aquarium in the meanders of the Basilica Ulpia, taking the form of a fluid being like water itself, which has preserved the archaeological site until today.

A retrospective of sexual evolution from fungi to robots

A lecture by Thomas Doxiadis - doxiadis+ explaining their study of fungi, ranging from the Entangled Kingdoms project shown in the Venice Biennale to their research on the evolution of life and sexuality in fungi, and vice versa.
Although at first, the impression is that fungi are simple life forms, in reality, they have high diversity and usually entail confusing reproduction systems, dynamic metabolism, adaptability, and behavioural strategies.

It’s a glimpse in what we call the tree of life and its intricate relationships.

This presentation offers an insight into the great significance of fungi and their pivotal role in life formation and sustainability.