Art

 

Every day, Aeroporti di Roma strives to guarantee its passengers a unique travel experience, overturning the paradigm that sees the airport as a mere point of arrival or departure. Today, the ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ airport stands as a 'diffuse museum' within which all forms of the huge Italian cultural and artistic heritage are enhanced, acting as a stage for the promotion of talent and as a showcase for the cultural and artistic events taking place in the capital.
 

 

Aaron Two Saints Deacon Martyrs (c. 1305-1310)

During the event celebrating ADR's 50th anniversary, three prestigious stained-glass windows were unveiled whose design, following strict stylistic comparisons by medievalist scholars, was attributed to Giotto, the master of painting: the great artist renewed the language of medieval art by overcoming the stylised Byzantine lexicon and developed a new style that would extend as far as the Renaissance with famous fresco cycles such as the Stories of St. Francis in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. The three panels depict the prophet Aaron, priest par excellence of the Old Testament, in the tondo, whereas the ogival ones show two deacons with tonsured heads, wearing dalmatic and carrying the palm of martyrdom. 
Taken together, the three panels comprehensively meet the need to showcase the richness and complexity of Italy's artistic heritage to the large public passing through Rome Fiumicino airport and thus having the chance to enjoy these works of art.
The three illustrated stained-glass windows attributed to Giotto, accompanied by 'experiential' columns on which some of the high-definition photographic images of works by the great master are projected, thanks to their new location in the frame of Pier A, can be admired during the exhibition period (from 12 February until September 2024) by millions of passengers departing and arriving for national, European and intercontinental destinations.


 


"Vertigine" by Manuel Felisi: from 21 November 2023

Travel, nature, traces, day and night. These are the main elements of "Vertigine” (Vertigo), the work by the Milanese artist Manuel Felisi exhibited at Terminal 1 of Fiumicino Airport from 21 November 2023.




Natural Reaction by Marcantonio: from 12 September 2023

"How many times a day do we think that our society is taking an excessively stressful, consumerist and compromising turn? How much of our attitude alters the natural balance of the world around us? And what remains within us of the natural world to which we belong?”. The message conveyed by 'Natural Reaction' by Marcantonio is a powerful message. This contemporary artwork depicts a life-size white rhinoceros, about four metres long, with a fifty-inch screen embedded in the horn. Starting today, passengers have the opportunity to admire it in Boarding Area E of Leonardo da Vinci airport.



 

Salvator Mundi by Gian Lorenzo Bernini: from 12 April to 31 August 2023

From 12 April to 31 August, Terminal 1 Boarding Area A hosted Bernini's 'Salvator Mundi', a sculpture owned by the Italian Interior Ministry’s Fondo Edifici di Culto (Worship Buildings Fund). This gave the more than 6 million passengers passing through the area the unique opportunity to admire this timeless artwork, including in guided tours open to everyone. Salvator Mundi is Giovan Lorenzo Bernini's last masterpiece and is usually exhibited in the Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura. It depicts the Blessing Christ in half-length: Christ's face, adorned with long hair, turns to the right with an expression of great serenity and majesty, and his right hand in the act of blessing is on the left side of his chest.


 

Deti: from 18 May 2022 

More contemporary forms of art are also explored at Fiumicino airport, such as Marco Lodola's 'Deti' (from the Cyrillic word for 'Children'), which, positioned at Pier A, is a tribute to Picasso's famous dove and, with its colours reminiscent of the flag of peace, is intended as a reminder.


 

Men and Gods in Ancient Ostia: from 18 May 2022 

From 18 May 2022, passengers will be able to admire precious Roman artefacts from the excavations at Ostia Antica and the Isola Sacra Necropolis along the walkway leading to Boarding Area A of Terminal 1. The exhibition itinerary “Uomini e dei a Ostia Antica” (Men and Gods in Ostia Antica), based on a scientific project curated by Ostia Antica Archaeological Park with the logistical support of AdR, includes the statues of Apollo, of Sabina as Ceres, of the Nymph, of Vibia Sabina, of a female deity perhaps Demeter or Ceres, and the sculptural group of wrestlers. Works that represent the artistic and figurative panorama of the ancient Roman colony, coming from monumental urban contexts and from the territory of the city (Baths of Neptune, Theatre, Necropolis of Porto all'Isola Sacra).




Images of time: from May 2017 to November 2023

“L'arte romana e il fluire delle stagioni” (Roman art and the flowing of the seasons): this is the title of the exhibition that ran from May 2017 to November 2023 at Fiumicino Airport, thanks to the partnership between Aeroporti di Roma and the Ostia Antica Archaeological Park. Passengers transiting through Boarding Area E, specific for non-Schengen flights, were able to enjoy several artworks from the Roman era, including a splendid mosaic, all from the excavations at Ostia Antica and the Isola Sacra Necropolis. The guiding thread of the exhibition, Time, re-proposed the juxtaposition between the ancient and the modern experienced by those arriving in Rome, and ideally closes the circle of time of Rome, the heart maritime traffic of the Empire which over time has evolved into today’s Mediterranean hub.