The Case of Capogrossi in Rome: Collecting Data With Different Technologies on a Contemporary Mural Painting

Abstract

This paper focuses on the presentation of a part of the main thematic data documenting the pathologies and the degradation problems of a contemporary mural painting, which was designed and carried out by the italian artist Giuseppe Capogrossi in 1954. This forgotten masterpiece is developed on the ceilings of the main double stairscase at the entrance of the Airone, an ex-cinema-theatre in Rome (Italy). In time, the original project was completely damaged and now the Airone cinema is abandoned since 1999; the decoration, strictly connected to the function of the original project, has been completely covered by synthetic coatings. The documentation of the observed pathologies and the original materials of the lower ceiling takes place during a restoration project in 2015-2016 and was accomplished by utilizing different technologies in order to facilitate the collecting of the main data within several graphic thematic tables. The challenge of this documentation was to create a contact point, and perhaps also a contamination, between the practices of CAD graphic documentation, restoration and GIS technology. THE CAPOGROSSI WALL PAINTING AT THEAIRONE EX CINEMA-THEATRE Introduction: conservation historyThe wall painting is developed on the ceilings of the main double stairscase at the entrance of the Airone, an ex-cinematheatre in Rome which is situated seven meters below the street level and thus, in a conservation way, can be associated to the typology of the hypogeum. The building, located inside a central court enclosed by five blocks of flats, was commissioned by a public corporation and was designed and planned during the Fifties by the famous architects Adalberto Libera, Eugenio Montuori and by the engineer Leo Calini (Calandra 1956, Zevi 1956, Aloi 1958, Montuori 1981, Garofalo and Veresane 1989, Bonavita 2003, Pellicano 2007. During that period, Capogrossi had already matured a visual vocabulary of irregular comb or fork-shaped signs (Bolpagni, 2013). This particular painting was developed on the basis of the architects' plans, even though it could be linked to the Informal artistic movement. As observed during the restoration project, and as the old surveyor of the time described, the abstract geometric style of the painting -which is made of a graphic and modular repetition of brilliant and "pop"colours -was connected together by utilizing modular elements onto the walls. Overall, in line with the architectural plan, the painting recalls the imagery of a large crowd flowing inside the cinema, their countless eyes watching around. In time, the Airone cinema lost its identity and became in order: a ballroom, a nightclub, a discotheque and eventually a strip club. The original project was twisted, transformed and damaged and the decoration -strictly connected to its function -has been completely covered by synthetic coatings first due to the water ingress and then due to the changing use of the building for different purposes; nine layers (De Cesare et al. 2015) developed over the upper ceiling of the...