Human capital becomes community capital

I Volti di una Comunità (The Faces of a Community) is an artistic and participatory project launched in the Rione Sanità district to transform art into a tool for cultural regeneration and collective recognition.

Conceived by the cooperatives La Paranza and La Sorte and curated by the artist Giuliana Conte, the project was promoted and funded by the City of Naples as part of the 2024 Public Call for Proposals for Contemporary Art Exhibitions. At its heart lies the neighbourhood community: its faces, its stories and its active role in the processes of change already underway.

In the Rione Sanità district, urban regeneration is not just about places, but also about the way in which a community represents and recognises itself. The Faces of a Community forms part of this process by placing the neighbourhood’s human heritage at the centre and viewing the community itself as a heritage community, in the sense defined by the Faro Convention.

The project took place between the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena ai Cristallini and the public spaces of the Borgo dei Vergini, with the aim of highlighting the link between contemporary art, participation and local identity.

The Faces of a Community combined artistic dialogue, workshops and an urban installation. The project did not merely produce artworks, but fostered a process in which art became an opportunity for listening, participation and public engagement.

Areas of focus

1. Meetings with international artists on the theme of local community involvement in regeneration processes.
2. ‘Places, Art and Community’ workshops aimed at young people and organised by the La Sorte Cooperative.
3. A public photographic installation in the Borgo dei Vergini.

Planned actions

• Organise three public seminars with international artists.
• Run six workshop sessions for young participants.
• Engage the community in a process of reflection on the value of participatory art.
• Create a photographic installation spread across the neighbourhood and regenerated public spaces.

Completed actions

1. Three public meetings held at the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena ai Cristallini with Giuliana Conte, Javier Ornelas Huerta, Elia Verona, Linh Trinh and Salvatore Criscitiello.
2. Six workshops on the theme of Places, Art and Community, open to young people in the city.
3. Production of interviews and writing activities with local residents.
4. Creation of 23 cyanotype photographic portraits printed on chiffon and produced by Giuliana Conte.
5. Public installation of the works in Piazzetta Crociferi, at the entrance to the Borgo dei Vergini.
6. Incorporation of the portraits into the Chiesa Blu of Cristallini as a fundamental element of the site’s aesthetic and significance.

The strength of the project lies in its transformation of art into a practice of mutual recognition. The faces displayed in public spaces do not simply represent individuals, but bring to light a community that is actively shaping its own narrative.

Social

The project strengthens the sense of belonging and restores a central role to residents, particularly women and social groups already active in the neighbourhood, such as the Forti Guerriere.

Cultural

Contemporary art becomes a tool for interpreting the local area, fostering dialogue and giving continuity to the regeneration processes already underway in the revitalised areas of the Rione Sanita.

Educational

Seminars and workshops have engaged young people and local residents in a practical process of observation, listening and cultural production, making them more aware of their role in the neighbourhood’s transformation.

I Volti di una Comunità leaves a visible and symbolic mark: it transforms a space that was first urban and then sacred into an open-air gallery and consolidates a working method based on participation, listening and collaboration between artists and the community.

More than an isolated exhibition project, the initiative confirms that cultural regeneration can become a collective process, in which people are not mere spectators, but protagonists.