Agostino Iacurci's floral pattern covers Pastificio Cerere restoration site in Rome

The historic Pastificio Cerere building in Rome's San Lorenzo district is undergoing restoration, but the scaffolding is wrapped in a massive floral pattern by artist Agostino Iacurci, commissioned by artistic director Marcello Smarrelli. Titled "Landscape n°2," the 400-square-meter PVC tarp features geometric and figurative elements referencing the building's history, including amphorae for grain transport and wheat ears alluding to the goddess Ceres. After restoration, the tarp will be repurposed into bags by the social tailoring workshop Coloriage, founded in 2019 for unemployed people, migrants, and asylum seekers. This project follows a similar 2010 intervention by Francesco Simeti, whose "Whole Wheat" tarp was also turned into bags in collaboration with the Casal del Marmo juvenile prison. The Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, established in 2004 by Flavio Misciattelli, has been a cultural hub since the 1970s when artists occupied the former pasta factory, leading to the Scuola di San Lorenzo. Iacurci, based in Berlin, is known for large-scale works like "Tracing Vitruvio" at Pesaro's Musei Civici and "Gypsoteca" at M77 Gallery in Milan, and won the New York 2020 prize promoted by MiBACT, MAECI, Columbia University, and the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, as well as Cantica21.