ROME, ITALY.- L'Officina d'Arte al Borghetto presents La città continua - The continuous city - Die fortdauernde Stadt, Olivier Fermariello | Sandro di Camillo | Christoph Brech, on view through April 22, 2007. Even if seemingly different, all cities are built according to the same scheme - like dreams, they are made of desires and fears, with absurd rules and misleading perspectives. (Italo Calvino)

To some extent all cities are the same - what really changes is a person's perspective. Three artists, each with a different cultural background and his own artistic language, confront each other on the same topic, examining existing analogies between the three European capitals Rome, Paris and Berlin. La città continua - The continuous city www.lacittacontinua.com was conceived as a project composed of a series of three similar installations that one after the other illustrate the artists' impressions of each city as well as what binds each of them to those particular places.
First stop on this journey: Rome.

Beginning April 13th, the first episode of La città continua, will be displayed at the Officina d'Arte al Borghetto (Piazza della Marina, 27 / close to Piazza del Popolo), once an abandoned garage that has recently been converted into an art gallery by Carlo Viriglio and Maria Paola Maino. Presented within the VI edition of FotoGrafia - International Festival of Rome under the patronage of the Goethe-Institut Rom, the official cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany, the project will include both a video-installation and two photo-exhibitions.

This artistic reflection on Rome captures the visions of the artists Olivier Fermariello, a French artist, born and raised in Rome, Sandro di Camillo, originally from Molise, who has recently moved to Rome and Christoph Brech, a German artist and scholarship holder at the prestigious German Academy of Rome Villa Massimo.

Olivier Fermariello observes Rome from the outside, as if he is looking at the city through a window. However, his point of view only appears detached. In his panoramic views of the city we find both anecdotal images of everyday life as well as more unusual sights in the city. The common denominator in his work is an indefinable and astonishing atmosphere, close to a magic reality.

Sandro di Camillo experiences Rome as a flaneur. In his eyes the city becomes a maze of streets where one can lose oneself, discover previously unknown corners, meet new people, and observe the colours, expressions and gestures of unfamiliar people while trying to portray them furtively. The Roman monuments and squares depicted in the background of Olivier Fermariello's representations are replaced by a game of geometric lines and colourful spots that take shape, evolve and disperse in a whirlwind of emotions.

In the videos of Christoph Brech the observation goes deeper and a photographic language evolves: each snapshot becomes animated. We see the ancient Roman society in the ornamental paintings of the cemetery of the Verano slowly developing, the greatness and splendour of a city revealed from a keyhole and even the relentless implosion of an urban landscape - the last stop of a city's evolving process. Perceiving time passing by, slowing down moments, memories: the work of Christoph Brech concentrates on apparent secondary points of views. The viewer's eyes rest on an object, a landscape, a person. But, only after patient and careful observation does each situation reveal itself in all its facets.