ROMA QUADRATA
CONVENTO DI
SAN BUONAVENTURA
My forthcoming installation, located in the heart of Rome, is an extension of the Roma: Camera Obscura project, this time delving into the origins of Rome and drawing on the concept of Roma Quadrata. This term alludes to the legendary architectural blueprint associated with the area archaeologists identify as the city's birthplace.
Within the precincts of the San Bonaventura convent atop Palatine Hill, where Rome's roots can be traced, I've begun the foundations of a 360-degree camera obscura installation. To date, I’ve constructed a camera obscura installation at the site from which I’ve already realized numerous large-scale negative prints.
The final result will involve sixteen pinhole cameras distributed around a surface upon which I will capture a negative image in a single moment during the summer solstice, encapsulating both space and time within a single photograph.
Specifically, the installation will be placed in a square room in the attic of the convent, which has sixteen windows evenly distributed on the four walls. The space will be completely darkened, and a pinhole will be created on each window. The sixteen resulting projections will converge onto a central structure constructed for the occasion, creating an inverted 360-degree, colorful view of the city in motion.
At the center of the installation, a 360-degree panoramic negative of Rome will be created by impressing the projection directly onto silver salts on paper. The sixteen pinhole apertures will open simultaneously to capture the image on a single panoramic roll of photosensitive paper (30x1.27 meters).
The resulting print will resemble a roll of cinematographic film, with some reference points appearing multiple times due to the proximity of the various pinhole apertures, giving the image a sense of motion.
Achieving the perfect framing of Rome in the darkroom, in a dimension and scale rarely attempted, is an extremely complex endeavor that requires meticulous on-site preparation and experimentation with light.
SIMULATION
In addition to the panoramic image on a single 30x1.27m photographic paper, 16 photographic negatives measuring 127x220cm, 4 for each side, and other details of the views in different sizes, 30x40cm, 40x50cm, 50x60cm, will also be produced.
The entire process will be documented with a 9-minute short film from which a 3-minute video will be extracted.
TIMELINE
In preparation, several images were captured in June 2023 including the image above. This image exemplifies one image in the 360-degree sequence.