Creativity, air quality, and sustainability: Rome’s Blu Art project gets underway

Fifteen works of art on the streets and squares of Rome, from the center to the suburbs, to make them more beautiful, more colorful, and more sustainable. The “Blu Art - i colori dell’aria” (Blu Art - the colors of the air) project is one of the measures with which the city administration aims to combat air pollution, while enhancing public spaces with urban redevelopment projects.

The project is financed with regional funds and involves the creation of street art flooring in each identified area using water-based paints produced from recycled raw materials. A non-toxic compound applied to the surface actively contributes, through a process of photocatalysis, to the decontamination of the environment by absorbing pollutants, including fine and ultrafine particulate matter such as PM10, PM2.5, and PM0.5. 

The street artists involved in the project are Marco Oggian, ScombinAnto, Serena Gianoli, GeometricBang, and Elisabetta Vedovato, coordinated by the Jungle communications agency. Each of them is called upon to interpret the theme of air pollution according to their own style and sensibility, setting the narrative from different perspectives: the harmful effects on humans, the relationship between pollution and overbuilding, the force of nature as a saving agent, and the urgency of changing personal habits.

The inauguration of the first work is scheduled for 13 October in Piazza Conca d’Oro. The work is expected to be completed by the end of November. The selected areas are the following: Municipio I - Via Nicola Zabaglia; Municipio II - Via Rodolfo Lanciani; Municipio III - Piazza Conca d’Oro; Municipio IV - Via Verdinois; Municipio V - Giardino Don Angelo Galafati; Municipio VI - Torre Angela; Municipio VII - Via Mondovì; Municipio VIII - Via Benedetto Croce 50; Municipio IX - Via Ardeatina 1274; Municipio X - Via Caterina Segurana; Municipio XI - Parco Giochi Via Caselli; Municipio XII - Largo Federico Caffè; Municipio XIII - Via Mattia Battistini; Municipio XIV - Via Castiglioni; Municipio XV - Ponte Milvio.