Associazione Culturale Lavatoio Contumaciale @ Rome Art Week

Associazione Culturale Lavatoio Contumaciale

Founded in 1974 by Tomaso Binga (Bianca Menna) and Filiberto Menna, the Lavatoio Contumaciale is a cultural information center in Rome that has been promoting events and research in art, poetry, theater, cinema, and new media for over fifty years.

Data and contact details

The “Lavatoio Contumaciale” Cultural Information Center was conceived and founded in 1974 by the artist Tomaso Binga (pseudonym of Bianca Pucciarelli in Menna), in collaboration with her husband, art critic Filiberto Menna, and the founding members Sergio Bergami, Fabio Bucciano, Ugo Cianciullo, Costantino Dardi, Giovanna Davia, Aldo Falivena, Modestino Fusco, Giovanni Gazzara, Mauro Lucaferri, Achille Mango, and Lidia Pucciarelli, each of whom made a vital contribution to its establishment through their specific expertise.

In 1980, the Center was formally established as a women-led association, with members Pierina Bachini, Adriana Cian, Iole Cianciullo, Carla Consiglio, Maria Teresa Consolo, Goldi Petzenbaum, Bianca Pucciarelli, and Lidia Pucciarelli.

The Center is located in Rome, at Piazza Perin del Vaga 4, in the Lungotevere Flaminio district. It occupies the ground floor of a remarkable building of public housing constructed in 1926. The space was originally a lavatoio contumaciale or isolation washhouse—a facility used to disinfect and boil laundry from homes affected by infectious diseases. From this origin, the Center symbolically takes its name.

The interior, renovated in 1974 based on a design by architect Costantino Dardi, is divided into two rooms separated by a striking “wall/sculpture”, which inspired the association’s current logo.

In recent years, the historical headquarters in Piazza Perin del Vaga has been complemented by a second venue, the Menna/Binga Archive, also in Rome, located at Via dei Monti di Pietralata 16. This space offers larger facilities and is used to host broader events and initiatives.

Over the course of its fifty years of activity, the Lavatoio Contumaciale has become an important center for cultural exchange and engagement. Since its inception, it has promoted a wide-ranging program of events and debates on contemporary issues, literature, poetry, visual arts, theatre, cinema, and new media.

This participant has not yet organized an event or exhibition in this edition or has not been included within an event or exhibition organized by another participant.

Events at Rome Art Week

2024

28 Sep-29 Oct 2024

Un’estasi che somiglia troppo al pianto

Fifty-one poets' eyes, enclosed in small Plexiglas cases, weep a mother-of-pearl tear and gaze at a steel, glass and water sculpture with a plumb line suspended in the center of the upper parallelepiped, titled “A Weight to the Heart.”
Free access
Vernissage Saturday 28 Sep 2024 | 18:00-21:00

Exposition

Associazione Culturale Lavatoio Contumaciale

Piazza Perin del Vaga,4