Città Foresta – Le Cosmicomiche (Cosmicomics) is among the winning projects of the “Estate Romana 2023-2024” call for proposals. It is a traveling festival of participatory art involving five neighborhoods of the city of Rome: Labaro, Laurentino, Corviale, Tufello and Trullo.
The Festival ties in with the activities already carried out as part of Città Foresta – City Jungle, the winning project of the call for proposals “Estate Romana 2022 – Riaccendiamo la città, Insieme”.
Città Foresta – Le Cosmicomiche aims to engage a wide audience, focusing on green areas as centers of aggregation and creativity, in connection with the surrounding urban areas.
The festival is inspired by Italo Calvino’s Le Cosmicomiche, with the aim of creating new worlds and cosmos following the principles of eco-sustainability and recycling.
The workshops, together with the artists and associations involved in the project, promote construction, drawing, theater, photography, sound and more, to raise awareness of urban and natural spaces and foster discussion, co-creation and reflection among the neighborhoods involved.
The second edition of the Festival Città Foresta – Le Cosmicomiche will be inspired by the concept of “Comic” found in Calvinian literature, mixing intellectual sagacity and subtle irony to transform the outskirts of the city of Rome into a vibrant place of creativity and sharing.
As in Calvino’s tales, where the comic emerges through paradoxes and surreal situations, the festival invites participants to explore new artistic universes and approach everyday life with a playful and innovative outlook.
Through participatory artistic practices and collective art-making processes, the festival will foster social inclusion and communication, themes also central to Calvino’s literature. Art workshops, inspired by Cosmicomiche, will offer a unique opportunity to explore the dimension of the comic through the creation of new narratives and the sharing of values and experiences.
As in Calvinian work, where humor is accompanied by deep reflection on human nature and society, the Città Foresta – Le Cosmicomiche Festival will promote an inclusive and innovative vision of the city, inviting participants to reinvent their relationship with public space and rediscover the transformative power of creativity and imagination.
The first edition of the Festival Città Foresta – Le Cosmicomiche was inspired by the concept of “Cosmic” found in Italo Calvino’s literature, bringing to life the surreal atmospheres and compelling narratives that characterize his most famous works. As in Calvino’s cosmic tales, where the universe manifests itself as a place of infinite possibility, the Festival explores the multiple dimensions of human creativity and the interaction between individuals and the environment.
Just as Calvinian stories transport readers to fantastic and surprising worlds, the Forest City Festival offered a journey through interdisciplinary art workshops, performances and meetings that invite reflection. Le Cosmicomiche is characterized by a broad and deep view of the universe, where every event is imbued with meaning and mystery. Likewise, the festival explores the complexity of urban life and the relationship between individual and community, offering spaces for sharing and co-creation that reflect the richness and diversity of human existence.
By encouraging the active involvement of participants in the creation of collective works, the project reflected the Calvinian idea of the universe as a place of constant transformation and shared construction. Just as Calvin’s Cosmicomiche invites us to contemplate the mystery and wonder of the universe, the Città Foresta Festival invites us to explore the beauty and complexity of urban life through the eyes of art and creativity.
The traveling festival held over 20 days between July and October, was attended by many artists and associations: URKA, Jacopo Natoli, Danilo Innocenti, Iginio De Luca, Gaia Scaramella, Isabella Mancioli, Luis Do Rosario and the associations VIVIAMOLAq, A.I.Me.F., CAP – Cities Art Projects and Pontedincontro.
From drawing to sound, theater to architecture, photography to meditative walking, we intervened in urban space and green areas creating moments of involvement, confrontation, co-creation and reflection by fostering inclusion, social cohesion and communication. Through participatory art practices and collective processes of artwork construction, artists created new cosmos by encouraging socialization, creativity and the sharing of values and experiences.
