Art begins at Home
Marco Victor Romano at Parisii Bocca di Leone 88
At Parisii, art is not only something to discover outside our doors.
Sometimes, it is already waiting inside.
At Parisii Bocca di Leone 88, the experience of staying in Rome becomes an encounter with contemporary art. More than twenty works are displayed throughout the common areas and individual rooms, transforming the residence into an intimate gallery where art becomes part of everyday life rather than something to be visited separately.
The artistic project was developed with Marco Victor Romano, artist and curator of the collection, whose vision brings together contemporary works, different techniques, and different ways of interpreting the world.
Among the works is Cosmo, displayed in the lobby. Part of Romano’s research The Impossible That Manifests Itself, the work creates an unexpected dialogue between different eras, cultures, and disciplines: a Roman statue, a Space Shuttle, a coral, and a twisted dodecahedron come together in a surreal and deliberately impossible encounter. It is precisely this meeting of apparently distant worlds that makes the work so intriguing.
In the Vert Sauge Room, another work by Romano, Muri – Tramonto, brings together cement and acrylic on wood. Its material quality and changing tones become part of the atmosphere of the room, creating a quiet connection between contemporary art and the refined palette of the interiors.
Throughout Bocca di Leone 88, art continues to emerge unexpectedly: in a room, along a corridor, in a common space. Figures, colours, materials, and fragments of language create a visual journey that accompanies the guest without ever becoming intrusive. This relationship between art and architecture is particularly important here.
The original nineteenth-century ceiling discovered during the renovation became one of the inspirations for the colour palette of the rooms, creating a dialogue between the building’s history and its contemporary identity. The result is a residence where architecture, design, and art are not separate elements, but parts of the same story.
Here, art is not separated from daily life.
It is encountered in the morning, on the way to one’s room, in a quiet corner of the house, or in a moment when one is not necessarily expecting to find it.
Perhaps this is one of the most beautiful forms of hospitality.
Not simply giving a guest a place to stay, but surrounding them with something that inspires curiosity, imagination, and a different way of looking.
Because sometimes, the most memorable encounters with art happen when we are not looking for them.