At the archaeological complex of the Villa of Maxentius, from November 25, 2022MEMINI ME – Remember MeArt installations in memory of victims of femicide,with Stories of a Year: from November 2021 to November 2022November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, is an observance established by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 54/134 of December 17, 1999.Starting precisely on this date, November 25, 2022, the project MEMINI Me. Remember Me will be hosted at the Villa of Maxentius until January 10, 2023, as a testimony and act of mourning for victims of femicide and gender-based violence.Conceived by the cultural association Officina Creativa Le Lase and curated by Manuela Troilo, the initiative is promoted by Roma Culture, Capitoline Superintendence for Cultural Heritage.The project’s lead artists are Manuela Troilo, Fernanda Andrea Cabello, Alessandra Francesca Spina, and Angela Torcivia. Participating artists include Maria Bianchi, Cinzia Catena, Laura D’Uffizi, Federica Lagella, Stefania La Terra, and Annalisa Lanari.The following institutions and facilities also take part in the project through their respective art workshops: Villa Letizia and Villa Madre Chiara Ricci SRTRe, ASL Roma 1 – Department of Mental Health (Montesanto/Palestro Day Center), and Pasquariello Day Center.Since ancient times, art has been a collective ritual capable of channeling the spirit of a community—its strength and courage, but also its fears and fragilities. In this direction, the association has oriented its work, using art to express existential anguish, the horror of violence, and the psychological distress that derives from it.The value of the project lies in supporting vulnerable individuals in the creation of artworks dedicated to those who could not be saved from their own fragility and from a society that is sometimes indifferent—namely, the victims of femicide over the past year.The project involves residential facilities and day centers where the artists work or volunteer with patients suffering from severe psychiatric conditions. From this experience comes the conviction that art has a redemptive power, and that through the channeling of distress, the pain arising from one’s own fragility can be transformed into meaningful expression.The collective installation unfolds along a spiral path, representing both the vortex of violence and its opposite: an eternal rebirth which, through a connection with the earth, generates purification and becomes testimony and memory.The approximately 30 cm ceramic tulips—each one unique and handmade—symbolize the individuality of each victim and her story. These stories of violence can be accessed via a QR code placed on each flower, readable through a dedicated mobile app. The number of tulips corresponds to the number of femicide victims in the past year.The tulip was chosen for its shape, reminiscent of a candle flame, intended as a gesture of remembrance—an embrace for a woman, too often killed by the very person she loved.Inside the Mausoleum of Romulus, an additional installation completes the exhibition space: a work made of red glass mosaic fragments emerging from dust. Titled RED CARPET by Manuela Troilo, it represents the trail of blood left by femicides, in stark contrast with the fleeting and misleading imagery of stereotypical, unrealistic feminine ideals often celebrated in public culture.The red tulips placed in the grass near the Mausoleum of Romulus also evoke a fragment of the site’s history, once owned by the family of the Roman noblewoman Appia Annia Regilla, who married Herodes Atticus at the age of fifteen.According to Philostratus, Regilla died in 160 CE under tragic circumstances: while eight months pregnant, she was beaten on the orders of her husband for trivial reasons, leading to her death and that of her unborn child.This emblematic historical episode, nearly 2,000 years later, testifies to the persistence of similar forms of violence. In Italy, such cases occur approximately once every three days, despite the country having a lower femicide rate compared to France, Germany, and other Eastern European nations.From November 25, 2021 to today, 50 women in Italy have been killed by their partners. In 2019, 1,421 women were killed across Europe—an average of four per day, one every six hours.Globally, 81,000 women and girls were killed in 2020, 47,000 of whom in domestic contexts—figures that may be even higher due to incomplete data in many countries.These alarming numbers cannot leave us indifferent. Femicide encompasses all forms of violence against women—often rooted in patriarchal structures—aimed at maintaining subordination and erasing women’s identity on psychological, symbolic, economic, and social levels.Further BackgroundOn November 25, 1960, in the Dominican Republic, three political activists—the Mirabal sisters (Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa)—were murdered on the orders of dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.While traveling to visit their imprisoned husbands, they were intercepted by military intelligence agents, taken to a secluded location, brutally beaten, strangled, and killed. Their deaths were staged as a car accident.In their memory, during the first Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Meeting held in Bogotá in 1981, November 25 was designated as a day of protest against violence toward women. In 1999, the United Nations officially adopted the date, encouraging governments, international organizations, and NGOs to organize awareness-raising activities.The date also marks the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, leading up to Human Rights Day on December 10, an initiative launched in 1991 by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership and supported by the United Nations.Press OfficeManuela Troilo – info +39 333 5962549INFOVilla of Maxentius – Via Appia Antica 153November 25, 2022 – January 10, 2023Opening: November 25 at 12:00 PMExhibition hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PMLast admission: 30 minutes before closingInfo: 060608 (daily 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM)Admission: Freewww.villadimassenzio.it​