Italy: M.U.Ro. The Museum of Urban Art in Rome

What?
An outdoor street art museum, featuring murals by international well-known artists, as well as by local talents.

Why visit?
To witness how ancient, classical Rome is turning into a street art Mecca (well, kind of... but even ancient and classical Rome wasn't built in a day, right?)

Where?
In the Quadraro neighborhood, a working class hood along Tuscolana road, an area know as the "wasp nest" for its inaccessibility during the Nazi occupation and whose pride and sense of community are still very rooted in its partisan past. Map. 


A BOHEMIAN OASIS of small houses with a village-like atmosphere, Quadraro is an interesting neighborhood to explore, especially if you are into street art. 

From 2010 onwards an independent group of artists and curators is working to bring to Quadraro several street artists. They are taking part in the upgrading of the area by creating a Public Art collection fully integrated with the social fabric and the characteristic traits of the 'hood. 

The project was named M.U.Ro, Museo of Urban art di Roma. Pun intended: 'muro' means 'wall' in Italian. 

Highlights:
Gary Baseman’s work connects the history of the neighborhood –represented by the acronym Q44 indicating the Nazi round-up happened on April 17th 1944- to the artist’s father, who was a partisan in Poland during the Nazi occupation; here Gary Baseman’s father is represented as a deer-looking creature, armed and combatant against the Nazi oppressors in the form of flying devils. Around him there are three more figures: Liberty which is looking up to him, Trust -beheaded and betrayed, as in the history of the Nazi occupation of Poland-, and Truth which is looking at us with its big, wide eye…a word to the wise.

Jim Avignon's mural, maybe the most popular mural of the overall project. Avignon honoured not only the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, but Art itself, represented as a naked female figure, a Goddess. Not a whatever Goddess, though: the streets painted on her body make her the street art Venus.

Ron English’s Temper Tot, a very muscular baby ready to cry. The background is very soft, simple and extremely two-dimensional, therefore the two main characters, Temper Tot and Mickey Mouse (who is wearing a gas mask to point out to world pollution), are coming out from the wall in all their three-dimensional power.

The mural by the Kazakhstani artist Dilkabear and Paolo Petrangeli, a first time experience in many ways: not only it was the first time the two artists worked together but it is also their first mural, as they usually work as illustrators. The artwork represents a kid playing a carillon and using her imagination to transform those noises into extraordinary objects.

Nicola Alessandrini’s mural representing an animal sacrifice where a long, pink, hyper realistic snake (a depiction of any kind of power: political, economical and religious) is about to eat a green mouse. Only few more men, represented as half monster by Diavù, are able to ride the snake, while the majority of us is supporting it and feeding it, eventually keeping the Power alive.

Getting There:

Take the subway (red line) until the stop Porta Furba – Quadraro and enter "free Quadraro" from Via dei Lentuli.


Useful links:
And so I'm back graffiti hunting at Quadraro
Quadraro again, quadraro soon
M.U.Ro Official website

About the author:  

Giulia Blocal is an aspiring travel blogger who writes at www.blocal-travel.com. She writes mostly about unconventional destinations, abandoned places, street art, suburbs, urban landscapes and weird spots.