On Wednesday June 21st 2023, starting at 4.30 p.m., the preview of the exhibition The Beloved of Isis: Nero, the Domus Aurea and Egypt is set up in the spaces of the New Access to the Domus Aurea, designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti to give back to the city one of the most evocative realities of Roman history.
On the day of the second anniversary of its construction, from June 22nd to January 14th 2024 the entrance space to the Domus Aurea will host a journey from the cultured and refined Alexandria, up the Nile towards File and Dendera, to Rome, inspiring Nero and his visionary architecture: the Domus Aurea. At the centre is the Great Cryptoporticus which has revealed, with its recent restoration, divinities, priests and worshippers traceable to Isis, the goddess with a thousand faces.
Stefano Boeri Architetti’s intervention insinuates itself among the ruins, skimming them, being completely autonomous and self-supporting with respect to the existing masonry. The entrance portal is designed to emphasise the location of the access point from the Colle Oppio park, with a system of openings and closures incorporating both the mobile doors and windows and the security system, highlighting materials such as black galvanised and painted steel sheet, contrasting with details in brushed bronze.
On the other hand, the supporting structure of the pedestrian walkway – accessible to all types of visitors – is made of HEB metal profiles covered with a smooth galvanised and painted sheet metal profile which, by means of an optical illusion, masks its dimensions and industrial features. Stefano Boeri Architetti’s decision to realise such a light intervention gives visitors an immersive space, a unique opportunity to observe the ruins from above, up close and even to walk through them, reaching the final access point to the Sala Ottagona.
For more information on the exhibition: https://colosseo.it/