Founding new identities: urban art as a tool for the re-territorialization of the roman periphery. The case studies of San Basilio and Tor Marancia as a response to urban marginalization

Mitigating the divide between the historic city, strongly symbolic and identity-defining, and the modern periphery, characterised by urban cores often perceived as ‘non-places’, represents one of the most significant challenges in defining the contemporary urban identity of Rome. In this scenario, marginal contexts, such as the Roman borgate, marked by considerable physical and social degradation, where the presence of anonymous architecture and the lack of essential services have rendered these sites devoid of identity, lead us to reflect on the possibility of re-signifying these places through ‘new’ urban art. By presenting examples such as the SanBa Project (curated by the WALLS association) and the Tor Marancia Condominium Museum (curated by the 999Contemporary association), it is intended to examine how this artistic expression can serve as a tool to highlight, through bottom-up initiatives, those realities left in the shadow by institutions, enacting a process of re-appropriation of urban space by citizens and the transformation of degraded areas from marginal spaces to ‘places of value.’ These re-territorialisation processes witness a ‘new foundation,’ which is not identified with the physical construction of an urban core but with the creation of ‘new places’, where the redefinition of identity can make the place recognisable, not only for its residents but also for its visitors.