...  POLISGRAMMA   operates  on  the  memory  of  the collectivity  and calls  the  individual to experience a sense of belonging,  heuristically proceeding in the research of  being's fragments,  forgotten among house walls,  in the original paths of  the human species. It rebuilds the fragments of a disintegrated social corpus, gives voice back to emotion ... However,  at the same time,  it is precisely those symbolic barriers, the yard fences or the painting frame, which ensures that it is, in fact, art (as it was a dream before). 
 (Riccardo Scognamiglio: "Polisgramma: Le barriere trasparenti - una lettura psicoanalitica", 1989)
 

"POLISGRAMMA is 'writing' and at the same time 'sign of the city'.  The theoretical foundation which structuralizes the Gruppo 12 artists' interventions is of an ethic-aesthetic nature, it has a 'social' dimension, as well as a 'civic' value.  For its 'action' within the urban tissue, it assumes a high idea of the polis, a stratified 'summa' - in space and time - of an uninterrupted series of gestures-signs.  The polis is a body undergoing transformation, a vital organism aiming at persistency in space and time, but with the risk of death by virus, metastasis, aging, negligence; this is the place of intervention: of memory, of imagination, of art". 
(Anna Cochetti, Art Critic,1998 )
 

"Working on the fences of the Rome building ground yards means to privilege a radically alternative exposition space for artists.  This certainly appears as a smart choice, particularly when a highly complex environmental impact is faced, as is the case with the metal fences of the Nerva Forum excavation yard.  The Gruppo 12 artists ... with profound sensibility, (have) realized the connection between the excavation yard structures and art, element of material and cultural transformation, complementing the archeological excavation and the monument restoration with a series of original works inspired from the fascination of the past, although with strong implications with the present and the future of this ancient heart of the city". 
(Gianni Borgna, Assessor for Cultural Affaires at Rome Municipality, 1997)

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