VJing and Live Cinema Take Over Rome's Maxxi and Macro Museums

Lorenzo Taiuti's editorial in Artribune Magazine #34 examines the rise of VJing (video jockeying) at Rome's two major museums, Maxxi and Macro. The phenomenon began with mapping interventions on Zaha Hadid's Maxxi facade by various groups, followed by the Live Cinema Festival at Macro on Via Nizza. Taiuti notes that a previous edition at Macro Testaccio was more suitable due to its larger screens for immersive audiovisual experiences. He compares the rapid spread of live cinema—derived from 'live media'—to 1980s graffiti, which quickly diffused globally through diverse media. Taiuti argues that VJing, like street art, requires site-specific contexts and recognizable linguistic elements. Its roots in club culture and digital peripheries make it an ambiguous, perverse, and polymorphic urban language. Unlike graffiti's immediate recognizability, VJing's style explodes with discordant, dissociative elements. The Live Cinema Festival has built international connections, with Barcelona's Sónar as a model. Taiuti questions whether this is expanded cinema (per Gene Youngblood) or a phase yielding unexpected future forms. He observes that audiences watch hypnotically, without dancing, in a state of detached satisfaction. He urges museums to adopt new policies for live languages, which are here to stay.