The Fourth Edition of IPER – Festival of the Suburbs
returns from May 2 to 28, 2025, in the year of the Jubilee, with a renewed focus on Rome and its transformations—those affecting the city center as well as its margins. A month filled with activities will take place in various locations across the capital, especially in areas that have distinguished themselves by offering original insights and responses to the challenges facing global metropolitan contexts. Rome will engage with these challenges through a rich program that includes international guests and several foreign academies.

Within this context, from May 3 to 7, the Casa dell’Architettura (Piazza Manfredo Fanti 47) will host the second edition of Rebirth Forum Rome, organized in collaboration with Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte, the Order of Architects of Rome, and the Festival of Architecture of Rome. The event will feature ten thematic tables with one hundred invited participants—representing universities, administrations, associations, professional studios, and museums—coming together over five days of public sessions enriched by talks, lectures, and workshops to discuss the future of Rome.

An artistic and “demopractic” device (see The Art of Demopraxy, a method for activating collective intelligence developed by Cittadellarte through diverse, site-specific collaborations in cities around the world), the Forum will culminate in the drafting of a manifesto and a list of shared objectives to be implemented through joint efforts by all participants (the work sites).

Opening of the Forum
On May 3 at 5:00 PM, again at the Casa dell’Architettura in Rome, the opening of the Rebirth Forum will take place. The event is symbolically titled 1+1=3; 10x10=?, referencing the trinamic formula and the number of tables and participants involved in the Forum.

The opening will feature remarks by the following guests: Massimiliano Smeriglio, Councillor for Culture of Roma Capitale; Roberta Bocca, Vice President of the Order of Architects PPC of Rome and Province; Carlo Ratti, Curator of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale (via video link); Guendalina Salimei, Curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale

Following these introductory speeches, the work sessions will be launched by: Paolo Naldini, Director of Cittadellarte; Giorgio de Finis, Artistic Director of the Museum of the Suburbs and of IPER Festival; Alice Buzzone, Councilor of the Order of Architects PPC of Rome and Province and Director of the Festival of Architecture of Rome; Francesco Saverio Teruzzi, Coordinator of the Rebirth/Third Paradise Ambassadors. The day will conclude with the screening of a video interview with Michelangelo Pistoletto and the presentation of the 10 discussion themes and the 100 participating organizations.

Prosperity and Future Generations: Andrew Percy’s Lecture
On May 3 at 6:00 PM, as part of the Forum’s opening event, a lecture by Andrew Percy, Vice Chair of the Social Prosperity Network at the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP), is also scheduled. Percy will focus on the work of the IGP, in line with the themes explored at the Rebirth Forum. The IGP aims to redefine prosperity for the 21st century, transforming the way we conceive and manage our economies and rethinking our relationship with the planet. It contributes to building a sustainable and global future grounded in principles of equity and justice.

The IGP carries out pioneering research that seeks to improve the quality of life for current and future generations. Its strength lies in combining intellectual creativity with effective collaboration and policy development. A key element of the IGP’s approach is its integration of non-academic knowledge, engaging with governments, policymakers, businesses, civil society, the arts, and local communities. The IGP has established three Prosperity Co-Laboratories (PROCOL) in the UK, Lebanon, and Africa, each conducting various research projects. These sites offer excellent opportunities for comparative and transdisciplinary research aligned with local needs and stakeholders.

Working Sessions and Thematic Tables
From Sunday, May 4 to Tuesday, May 6, the following thematic tables will unfold through multiple phases: Housing: From a Roof Overhead to the City as a Common Good; The Waters of Rome: Rivers and the Sea; The Gendered City, the City for All; Green Spaces and the Multispecies City; The City as a Museum; Peripheries: The City’s Frontier; Spaces for Participation; The Educating City; Decolonizing Rome; Poverty, Hospitality, and Care. On Wednesday, May 7, the Forum will shift from collaborative discussions to a plenary session. From 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, the workshop findings will be shared, while the closing session will take place in the afternoon from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM. This final part will include a presentation of the outcomes curated by Cittadellarte and the Signing of the Commitment Act. The day will close with farewell remarks from Alessandro Panci, President of the Order of Architects PPC of Rome and Province.

The Educational Project
On the Forum’s opening day, the presentation of the educational project “What Do Young People Think?”, curated by Alice Buzzone and Francesco Saverio Teruzzi, will also take place. To broaden participation in the initiative, various schools across the city were involved in an activity linked to civic education. The project gave a voice to girls and boys, children and teens, engaging school communities in envisioning a “just” city for all by listening to younger generations.

Ten activity sheets were created—one for each of the ten themes addressed in the thematic tables at the Casa dell’Architettura. Using guiding questions, students were invited to actively participate in the debate and formulate proposals. These sheets, presented at the Forum’s opening, may also serve as a starting point for the discussions at each table.

The Drapes
The Rebirth Forum is an event that ritualizes and actualizes the myth of collective intelligence—the belief that dialogue and collaboration can generate a level of intelligence greater than the mere sum of individual capabilities. Art does something similar with artworks, condensing complex, layered, and plural intellectual processes into a shared cultural heritage, regardless of whether the piece is hosted in a public or private space.

In this spirit, the Roman Aquarium will host both processes: the ten thematic tables—where participants will discuss and propose actionable ideas—will be artistically connected to ten drapes. These drapes will be suspended like a sky of interwoven intelligence, forming a tapestry of quotes, statements, aphorisms, and mottos by visual artists.

Between the tables and the drapes, a play of resonances and dissonances, reflections and divergences, openness and dialogue will unfold—linking the space and its inhabitants, while also connecting the cultural heritage preceding the Forum with the new knowledge emerging from it.

The drapes project was coordinated by Cittadellarte Fashion B.E.S.T. and created in collaboration with the following institutions: Accademia Italiana of Art, Fashion and Design (with professors Walter Conti and Cecilia Rinaldi, coordinators Simonetta Duretto and Patrizio Arrighi, and students Elisa Parisse, Matilde Rizzi, Marco Sabatini, Maelus Du Crest De Villeneuve, Andrea Castellana, Anna Chiara Taliani, and Zeynep Ozkan); Accademia Unidee, which developed the graphic design in collaboration with Gabriel Croso (third-year student of Public Art) and with technical support from Pratrivero Textiles Since 1663; IED | Istituto Europeo di Design (students involved in the customization of the drape: Alessandro Mazzoni and Federico Foschetti); MAM Maiani Fashion Academy (students: Vincenza Mazzoccola, Simona Hristian, Alice Abbaleo, Martina Mirachi, Chiara Fallerini, Francesca Ponzo, Carmen Elena Sentiveanu, Jean Miguel Ramos, Navjot Singh, Anna Asimi, Yana Kozlovska, Carlo Farina); NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti

The State of the Art, Pistoletto in Dialogue with Naldini and de Finis

On May 6, in addition to the working groups, there will be a meeting at 5:00 PM organized within the context of the Forum, at the Casa dell'Architettura: The State of the Art, featuring the special guest Michelangelo Pistoletto, who will be in dialogue with Paolo Naldini and Giorgio de Finis. Referring to the title and theme of the event, The State of the Art is an evolving collective work born from the belief that every individual, through their creative abilities within the communities of practice they belong to, can actively contribute to the transformation of society. It is an innovative civic-political form that combines the freedom of art with shared responsibility, aiming to build a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world. Founded on the Creation Formula, the symbol of the meeting of opposites from which a new balance emerges, it places art and science at the center of change, promoting a new harmony between nature, culture, and technology. Its theoretical reference and operational model are based on the Art of Demopraxia, which activates the connection between communities of practice and enables genuinely participatory governance. The State of the Artpromotes co-creation in all fields—art, politics, education, business—and recognizes every person's right to participate in cultural life and in shaping the future. Active for over 25 years in the Biella area and within a global network, it is open to anyone who shares its values and wishes to act for the responsible regeneration of society.

The Voices

Paolo Naldini
"Is this the time to celebrate? Is it perhaps time to architect? Can we talk about joy and design in this total drama we live in, with wars, genocides, massacres, and ecocides? Can we sit around a table to deliberate, enact laws, and express visions of life, and then decide on programs to implement and govern in our own communities of practice, and maybe still believe, even for a moment, that life can make sense and even be beautiful? Utopian? But isn't this what happens every day? In cities around the world, thousands of decisions are made this way, without ceremonies or institutional formalities. It’s a fact. And in fact, this is how misery or comfort are determined in the lives of millions of people. So, the question is: are there ways to orient the incessant work of these myriad decision-making processes toward the common good and sustainable and equitable horizons, without solely relying on legal obligations, and without evaporating into the idea of changing fundamental cultural paradigms? The art of demopraxia engages and experiments precisely here, on the outskirts of power, at the heart of doing".

Giorgio de Finis
"I firmly believe in the role that art can play in ‘making cities’ and, therefore, in restoring meaning, opportunity, and concreteness to politics (which, as the etymology suggests, is directly related to the city). A concreteness that is not about keeping one's feet on the ground, staying low, but, on the contrary, a hymn to the possibilities that creativity, combined with relationships with others, can generate".

Francesco Saverio Teruzzi
"On Tuesday, April 15, in the morning, I was at the Elisa Scala Comprehensive School with classes 1B and 1D, talking about Educating Cities and Spaces of Participation, two of the ten themes of the second edition of Rebirth Forum Rome. I was in a middle school because, for this edition, together with Giorgio de Finis, the Committee, and the Order of Architects of Rome, we decided to give the new generations the opportunity to open the 10 working groups with their questions. It was an immersive experience, and I thank Alice Buzzone for the overall idea, for the shared preparation of the materials, and for the responsiveness of the school and the students. A different proposal in a Rebirth Forum that presents itself in a different way and asks for the participation and attention of a City and a rich and diverse community of values, called Rome".