The Purification

The artwork “The Purification” (La Purificazione) by Ale Senso was created as part of the project “In the Footsteps of the Arvales. Voices and Images from the Origins of Rome to Contemporary Times,” curated by the Muri Lab APS Association. This project aims to connect archaeology, contemporary art, and urban narrative in the heart of the Municipio XI district.

The project, promoted by Roma Capitale – Department of Culture, is the winner of the Public Notice Artes et Iubilaeum – 2025. It is funded by the European Union Next Generation EU for large tourist events under the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), measure M1C3 – Investment 4.3 – Caput Mundi.

Description: the artist was inspired by the purification rituals that the Fratres Arvales,  Arval Brethren or Arval Brothers, underwent before the ceremonies in honor of the goddess Dia. Dia is called the “luminous” goddess, the one who protects the final cereals’ maturation. The main task of the Arvales was precisely to ensure, through their ceremonies, the successful cultivation of the fields (arva).

The artist Ale Senso was particularly struck by the repetition of the gestures of washing, immersing themselves, taking purifying baths in the thermal complex, and then re-emerging. From this, she explored a broader concept of purification, almost in an alchemical and inner sense, to transfer it to the contemporary world. She reflected on how the actions done are also reflected in the psyche of those who perform them.

Thus, the basin for the ablutions is transformed in Ale Senso’s imagination into a very large and capacious vase, from whose bottom fresh, clear water spontaneously flows. The surface of the water is translucent, indicating the transparency of the sign and the water, in which six mirror-like figures are reflected and almost merge in a mimesis. At the far left and right, a figure holds two jugs pouring purifying water, whose graphic sign outlines the two central figures. One flows into the other, in a continuous stream.

Materials Used: shaped methyl methacrylate sheets with low environmental impact, 100% recyclable, shaped composite aluminum sheets with low environmental impact, 100% recyclable, steel support profiles, nuts, bolts, anchors with chemical adhesive, metal anchors. Acrylic industrial paints, acid-free acrylic fixative.

Location: Via della Magliana, on the wall surrounding Piazza Madonna di Pompei, in front of Magliana railway station.

Installation Date: installed between August 25 and September 7, 2025.

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Or to learn more about the purification rites:

The festival in honor of the goddess Dia was a movable feast that changed from year to year, falling between May 17, 19, and 20, and May 27, 29, and 30. The first of the three festival days took place in the city, the second in the lucus deae Diae, the sacred grove dedicated to her, today located at Magliana Vecchia, and the third day again in the city.

During these days, the Arval Brethren priestly college continuously performed purification rites.

On the first day, the rites took place in Rome at the residence of the magister in office. After performing sacrifices with incense and wine and anointing the statue (simulacrum) of the goddess Dia with scented oils, the Arval brethren moved to the public baths (terme). After noon, they washed their hands and, wearing a white dining robe, banqueted lying on triclinia (couches). After the banquet, they washed their hands again, received offerings from their assistants which they sacrificed with incense and wine, and subsequently received scented oils and banquet wreaths. At the end of the ceremony they stripped  a rose of its petals.

On the second day of the festivals, the priests moved to the lucus deae Diae, the sacred grove 6 miles from Rome. Several times during the morning ceremonies, purification rites related to water were performed. After sacrifices in the temple of the goddess Dia and at the circus, the magister supervising the ceremonies went first to the thermal complex (balneum) and then to his pavilion (papilio), a chamber located on the curved side of a monumental portico in front of the baths. Joining the brethren who had arrived from Rome in the meantime, they all took a bath together.

The nature of the goddess Dia, who with her beneficial light protected the final cereals’ maturation, is both Uranian and Chthonic, celestial and agrarian, meaning linked to both sky and earth. The close connection with water is particularly evident in the baths and in the decorative motif of the shell, linked to both the Uranian and aquatic spheres, which recurs in the architectural decoration of the temple.

Reference Bibliography:
J. Scheid, Gli Arvali e il sito ad Deam Diam, in R. Friggeri, M. Magnani Clementi, C. Caruso, Terme di Diocleziano. Il chiostro piccolo della certosa di Santa Maria degli Angeli, Milano 2014

F. Marcattili, review Tra terra e cielo: la topografia ed il culto del lucus Deae Diae. 2020 in Journal of Roman Archaeology, Volume 35, Issue 2 / December 2022. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2023, pp. 1022-1027, print publication: December 2022

H. Broise, e J. Scheid. Tra terra e cielo: la topografia ed il culto del lucus Deae Diae, in Recherches archéologiques à La Magliana, 3. Un bois sacré du Suburbium romain : topographie générale du site ad Deam Diam. Roma Antica 8. Roma: École française de Rome; Soprintendenza Speciale Archeologia Belle Arti Paesaggio di Roma 2020

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