D’ARC Foundation (Rifugio d’Arte Contemporanea, Contemporary Art Shelter) was born in 2024 as a permanent exhibition space and center for contemporary art, to host exhibitions, residencies, events, cultural, and educational activities.

The roots of D’ARC Foundation trace back to the late 1990s, when Giovanni and Clara Floridi began their private collection.

This collection is the beating heart of the Foundation: a cross-section of Italian and international art from the 20th and 21st centuries, beginning with the Futurist period, moving through post-war Abstract art, Kinetic and Programmed Art, Arte Povera, Postmodernism, and finally arriving at the multifaceted languages of the new millennium.

The Foundation’s mission is to promote and support contemporary art and culture as public values and spaces for sharing. Strongly connected to its local context, the Foundation seeks to build a network of virtuous relationships with institutional and entrepreneurial partners, both national and international, dedicated to fostering and spreading culture. With this vision, Fondazione D’ARC establishes itself as an exhibition hub and a driving force for knowledge, curiosity, and attention to contemporary art.

The Foundation is located in Rome, Via dei Cluniacensi 128-130, within a former cement manufacturing plant that has been renovated preserving its original industrial architectural layout.

The Foundation’s headquarters is developed in an area of about 6,000 square meters, which includes: an exhibition space of more than 1,500 square meters that houses the permanent collection and a hall dedicated to temporary exhibitions and cultural events; a square intended for parking and outdoor events; a house used as a home-studio for the residency program of international artists; a shed that houses the artisanal production of frames, frames and design furniture; and a bistro for private events.

The new cultural space was designed following environmental sustainability principles: the entire structure is powered by a comprehensive photovoltaic system, ensuring energy self-sufficiency.

The conservation and recovery of the former cement factory that houses the Foundation is a significant example of industrial archaeology.

The building, once an abandoned, gutted shell, has a nave-like structure resembling that of a cathedral. Measuring 50 meters in length, 25 meters in width, and nearly 6 meters in height, the space is interspersed with partitions that make it functional as an exhibition venue. The volumes, the yellow-colored iron load-bearing structure with shaped trusses and the overhead cranes, once used to transport concrete artifacts, have been retained of the original structure.

The structure, reimagined by the architectural firm 3C+t Capolei Cavalli Associati, retains and respects its original design, featuring corten-effect panel cladding surmounted by large windows that promote natural lighting in the rooms.

The entrance aisle features a large window that frames a majestic tufa wall from the Roman era, delimiting the archaeological area bordering the Foundation.

The D’ARC Foundation is located at 128-130 Via dei Cluniacensi in the Tiburtino district, near the station of the same name and at the foot of a large archaeological area. In this area, remains dating from the second century A.D. have been found and they can be traced back to the villa that Martial mentions as having belonged to his friend Aquilius Regulus.

The archaeological excavation above the Foundation’s tufa wall presents what must have originally been a wide porticoed corridor, with a black-and-white tile floor in a geometric pattern. Over it opens a small room decorated with marble and mosaics, and on the back wall of which was probably placed a statue of Artemis, fragments of which have been found.

In the eastern garden, a circular structure, preserved up to the domed roof, stands beside a monumental fountain. The building is semi-subterranean, and a staircase leads to an inner hall with four small windows and three rectangular niches. A channel, which functioned as both drainage and insulation, runs around the building.

 C. CALCI (ed.), La Via Tiburtina, Fratelli Palombi Editore, Rome, 1999, pp. 7-9

© Eleonora Cerri Pecorella