We met Chiara Passa, a pioneer in multimedia arts based in Rome, and asked her to tell us about FLESH AR(T) ATTACK, an augmented reality performance event presented as part of ULTRA REF, a section of the Romaeuropa Festival created in collaboration with students from the three-year Multimedia and Technology Arts course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Twenty-five augmented reality projects orchestrated a mapping of the particular spaces of the former Mattatoio di Roma, a fascinating space of industrial archaeology, now destined to be integrated into one of the most ambitious urban redevelopment projects with the creation of a centre for research and artistic production, a project that already enjoys the presence of various entities dedicated to culture, including the adjacent spaces of the Academy of Rome, the Roma Tre University of Architecture, and the historic school of popular music in Testaccio, as well as all the activities that the Romaeuropa Festival has brought to the city in recent years, establishing itself as a hub for the city and in an international context. For those who have experienced the project, participating in FLESH AR(T) ATTACK meant crossing this large space in a walk between the present and the past, focusing attention on the magic of this particular portion of urban area, its history and the energy it is capable of unleashing. We asked Chiara Passa what it meant to work in the specificity of the place and in a choral and intergenerational project.
Arshake: Is FLESH AR(T) ATTACK a performance event? Can you explain how it is structured within the public space and how it acts as a bridge between the Festival and the Academy of Fine Arts?
Chiara Passa: The project is structured as a guided tour through 25 AR hotspots, each of which activates an interaction between physical space and digital content. The augmented installations do not merely decorate the environment, but conceptually reshape it, transforming the entire area into an immersive and reactive art centre.
The works of FLESH AR(T) ATTACK overwrite the historical memory of the former slaughterhouse with a new digital artistic narrative, redefining the relationship between space, body and technology. Flesh – evoked in the title – becomes a metaphor for presence, vulnerability and transformation, while augmented reality becomes an instrument of poetic resistance and critical reflection. In this context, AR is not only a medium, but an artistic language that questions reality and expands its boundaries.
Through smartphones and tablets, visitors are invited to explore a constellation of multimedia works ranging from digital sculpture to spatial narration to post-human criticism. Each augmented reality intervention is the result of a collaborative effort. The students worked in different but complementary directions, linked by the theme of the poetic and critical transformation of the former slaughterhouse space.
The central theme of the AR works is the metamorphosis of the architectural and social body, where flesh – evoked in the title – becomes a metaphor for presence, memory and resistance.
Some explored the idea of the archive, creating three-dimensional videos that layer memories and imagination. Others worked directly on the architecture of the place, transforming it into a sensitive and reactive surface. Still others (including myself, with one of the Object Oriented Stones, interactive stones oriented towards objects) generated post-organic sculptures, abstract forms that seem to emerge from the subsoil of that post-industrial archaeology, like visual sap that nourishes new visions.
What did you bring to this occasion from your experience with the Widget Art Gallery, which since 2008 has brought together young and established artists to create works for a digital gallery the size of a widget application?
Definitely my curatorial experience with liminal and pocket-sized spaces, i.e. unconventional environments that challenge traditional exhibition logic and invite us to rethink the relationship between artwork, context and enjoyment. With the Widget Art Gallery, I learned to construct narratives that adapt to mobile, ephemeral, decentralised formats, and this sensitivity also influenced the design of FLESH AR(T) ATTACK.
For this project, I brought with me a curatorial practice already tested in Widget, which values the coexistence of emerging and established artists, promoting a horizontal and generative dialogue. Working with students, I tried to convey the importance of conceiving the exhibition space as a living organism, an artistic and critical device capable of accommodating plural visions and directly engaging the public. In this sense, FLESH AR(T) ATTACK was also a conceptual extension of the Widget Art Gallery: an augmented and situated environment where art manifests itself in a fluid, accessible and radically contextual form.
What did working with students on a collaborative art project mean to you?
The project originated as the final exam for Virtual and Augmented Reality, a culminating moment in the educational programme in which students are challenged to design and create site-specific digital works.
At the end of the semester, we explored the space of the former slaughterhouse, discussing it together so that each student could choose an area to work on. Each student then imagined an augmented reality intervention, made accessible through AR matrices.
FLESH AR(T) ATTACK is also a pedagogical manifesto: a concrete example of how teaching can generate contemporary artistic practices, enhancing the work of students and promoting a collective and transformative vision of digital art.
What was the public’s response?
The public response to the FLESH AR(T) ATTACK event was extremely positive and warm, with strong engagement and sincere appreciation for the immersive and collective experience. We welcomed a diverse audience: elderly people curious to discover the works, families with children, and of course professionals and enthusiasts from the art world. This mix confirmed the effectiveness of augmented reality as an inclusive artistic and educational language. It is important to remember that artists create works primarily for the public, and there is no greater satisfaction than seeing them participate, surprised, attentive, and emotionally involved.
FLESH AR(T) ATTACK, 23-28.09.2025, ex Mattatoio, various locations, 23-28.09. 2025
Conceived by Chiara Passa as a collaboration between the Academy of Fine Arts (Multimedia Arts, coordinated by Maria Cristina Reggio) and the Romaeuropa Festival, as part of the Ultra REF section.
Alongside Chiara Passa, students from her three-year course in Multimedia and Technological Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome also exhibited their work: Annamaria De Paris, Anton Tkalenko, Aurora Tittarelli, Caterina Pitrola, Chiara Stella Landi, Davide Solarino, Enea Tomassi, Federica Santoro, Francesca De Rosa, Giovanni Pio Appoloni, John Javier Zuniga Perez, Katharina Faller, Lanyi Zhang, Laura Molino, Lidia De Nuzzo, Martina Panico, Mirko De Paolis, Olimpia Paldi, Pietro Guerrini, Sophia Rossetto, Tiziano Orlandi, Wei Jia Deng, Yueqi Tu, Yuting Hu, and Zihang Fu.
images: (cover 1) mappa (2) FLESH AR(T) ATTACK, Mattatoio di Roma, 23-28.09.2025, foto: Monkeys VideoLab (3-4) FLESH AR(T) ATTACK, Mattatoio di Roma, 23-28.09.2025, foto: Federica De Pari
