Insediamenti residenziali pubblici e rigenerazione urbana. L’arte nei quartieri Ater di Roma

The contemporary city, the outcome of metropolization’s processes, while retaining unchanged, indeed increasing, its role as a driver for the economic growth of the country, at the same time feeds phenomena of socioeconomic, spatial and ecological-environ- mental polarisation and fragility. In particular, public peripheries are characterised by increasing marginal conditions, which often do not allow the maintenance of adequate levels of urban welfare, well-being and quality of life for the local communities. The urban regeneration strategy, which constitutes the main reference for the intervention in the public peripheries, aims at construction of the public city and enhancement of the common goods, on which re-establish the structure and the image of the neighborhoods, the quality of the environment and of the public spaces, and the sense of belonging to the places. In this per- spective, urban art can represent the driver for urban regeneration virtuous processes, because it refers to participatory and emotional artistic expressions that involve heterogeneous spaces and objects, giving voice to the instances that emerge from the territories. Many European public peripheries over the last decade have been the focus of regeneration projects based on art and identity re-appropriation, in order to rethinking them as cultural centres and destinations of alternative tourist flows, which physically and symbolically reconnect them to the urban system and give it back prospects of equity and quality of life. The paper illustrates two public art projects aimed at the regeneration of public peripheries in Rome: Big City Life in Tor Marancia and Sanba in San Basilio. Both, started in 2014 by cultural associations initiati- ve, have involved, also financially, public and priva- te stakeholders, and have provided a participatory path to share the project with the local community since the early phases of conception.