Visual Arts – Performing Rome

Discover the secrets of performance art, in collaboration with Maxxi Museum
PERFORMING ROME is a visual art course to practice performance art immersed in the city of Rome, its history and present, religious, secular, and contemporary art and architecture. You will be visiting and interpreting the city physically and conceptually, through its tales, myths, and monuments.
This intensive workshop focuses on individual performance art practice with the backdrop of the Eternal City: the call is to embark on a journey to re-perform Caravaggio, Bernini, and Zaha Hadid.

You will practice physical and mental exercises to learn how to hold the space, including some derived from yoga, several trust exercises, endurance exercises, and meditation techniques.
The course includes special visits and a unique guided tour Museo Maxxi where you will have the chance to do your own performance in front of the audience at the museum.
This workshop welcomes performance artists, visual artists exploring this territory, as well as filmmakers and photographers developing their own reportage about contemporary art.

Course leader

Marta Jovanović is a performance artist and educator with a mission to promote and facilitate further progress of the discipline. For more info visit our website.

Target group

From 18 years old

Course aim

Day 1
Introduction and schedule of the course.
A lecture on history of performance art from Futurism and DADA to the present times: the ways in which it has evolved in different parts of the world. The works of some of the most important artists of performance art such as Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic, Joseph Beuys, Vito Acconci, and others will be analyzed and discussed, as well as the relationship between performance art and the contemporary art scene, the connection with museums and commercial galleries, and the key role of performance art in major art events.
Individual and group exercises.
Visit to the Vatican Museums

Day 2
Performing the Vatican – individual or group student performances
A path throughout the heart of Rome. Visit to Saint Louis of the French (The Calling of Saint Matthew, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, and The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio), the Pantheon, Barberini Palace, Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome (The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa of Avila by Bernini).

Day 3
Performing Caravaggio and Bernini – individual or group student performances in the streets of Rome.

Day 4
Guided tour of the MAXXI Museum, focusing on architecture. Preparation for the performances that will take place on the afternoon in the courtyard of the Museum.

Day 5
Discussion and review of the performance concepts, rehearsal, and final performances at RUFA Space at Pastificio Cerere.

Credits info

2 EC
No extra info

Fee info

EUR 680: University students: 5% (upon presentation of the university registration booklet)

If the student, after having attended the workshop, enrolls in a BA or MA program at RUFA, a 10% reduction will be applied to the annual tuition fee for the first year.