FOROF
presents

Episode V of Season V
in dialogue with INFRASUPRA, the site-specific installation by Alicja Kwade
curated by Valentino Catricalà

TIBIA

A Musical Performance by MASMAS

Thursday, June 18, 2026 | 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Palazzo del Gallo di Roccagiovine
Foro Traiano, 1 - Rome
www.forof.it

Rome, June 3, 2026

Another work conceived specifically for the spaces of FOROF, where the Artflix project envisioned by founder Giovanna Caruso Fendi moves toward the final event in the artistic and cultural activation programme of Season V, featuring internationally acclaimed artist Alicja Kwade and her environmental installation INFRASUPRA (on view through July 29, 2026).

Episode V is scheduled for Thursday, June 18, and will feature a musical performance by MASMAS, the trio formed by Simone Alessandrini, Mauro Remiddi, and Simone Pappalardo. Together, they will further their shared exploration of the deconstructed song form, intertwining augmented and self-built musical instruments, sound installations, and electroacoustic sound art practices. Their performance will offer new pathways and meanings to the ongoing dialogue between history and experimentation, bringing renewed energy to the unique surviving coloured marble fragments of the Basilica Ulpia (2nd century CE), preserved in the underground level of Palazzo del Gallo di Roccagiovine.

TIBIA—named after an ancient Roman ritual instrument originally crafted from animal bone, from which it derives its name—takes the form of a performative sonic ritual in which composition, instruments, and acoustic matter resonate with the historical materials of the architecture at Foro Traiano 1, its poetic possibilities, and the site´s original function. Since 2022, Giovanna Caruso Fendi has invited artists to breathe new life into these precious remains of Ancient Rome, which bear witness to gatherings and symbolic rites such as the manumissio, the ceremony that, during Emperor Trajan’s reign, granted freedom to enslaved people and transformed them into free citizens.

For Episode V, MASMAS will investigate the historical architecture by extracting its resonant frequencies and constructing a series of musical instruments capable of interacting with the site´s vibrations. Sonic and spatial elements will influence one another, transforming the concert into an immersive, unstable, and constantly evolving listening experience.

“With Tibia, MASMAS do not simply provide a soundtrack for a space; they transform FOROF’s archaeological architecture into a living resonating chamber. Through self-built instruments and augmented devices, the trio interrogates historical matter, drawing out its own voice. The result is a contemporary ritual in which sound becomes a tool of excavation and composition becomes an unstable bridge between the memory of the site and digital experimentation,” explains Valentino Catricalà, curator of FOROF’s entire Season V.

MASMAS conclude the sequence of Season V Episodes, following contributions from the band PAAR (Episode 1), poet and vocalist Jonida Prifti (Episode 2), artistic duo MASBEDO (Episode 3), and artist and illusionist Tobias Dostal (Episode 4), all of whom have contributed to a rich interplay of emotions and reflections.

As Season V approaches its conclusion, Giovanna Caruso Fendi reflects on MASMAS’s contribution to the ongoing dialogue between INFRASUPRA and FOROF’s archaeological site: “I wanted this ‘creature’ of mine to become a multidisciplinary laboratory, open to the cross-pollination of art, music, literature, poetry, performance, and sensory research. I believe it is essential to create participatory cultural experiences in which audiences become active members of a community that shares sensitivity, beauty, and free thought. MASMAS represent another important piece in the complex mosaic of an artistic and cultural reality oriented toward the future while remaining firmly rooted in the past of an Eternal City that inspired its own time and continues to inspire ours today through the ‘complicity’ of contemporary artists and their sensibilities.”

For Episode V, FOROF has once again invited Rimessa Roscioli to translate the performance’s concept into a gourmet sensory experience, extending moments of conviviality and reinforcing the spirit of sharing and freedom that animates the project.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to Galleria Continua, the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo, and the Polish Institute in Rome.

MASMAS would also like to extend special thanks to the Chorus Tibiarum: Giacomo Ancillotto, Loredana Antonelli, Laura Barbam, Lorenzo da Silva, Nina Fucci, Riccardo Gambatesa, and Alessia Luongo.

In partnership with Rimessa Roscioli.

***

MASMAS

Three musicians from different artistic backgrounds, united by a free and inquisitive approach to sound and a desire to transcend genre boundaries, MASMAS was founded in Rome in 2021 during a residency at Mattatoio – Palazzo delle Esposizioni. The meeting between Simone Alessandrini, Mauro Remiddi, and Simone Pappalardo immediately evolved into both a sonic and human dialogue. An improvised session revealed an instant chemistry and a vibrant creative tension that would become the project’s defining characteristic.

More than a band, MASMAS is a method: a collective compositional practice based on improvisation, error, and continuous transformation.

Alessandrini, a saxophonist and composer, comes from jazz and singer-songwriter traditions. His focus on melody and narrative intertwines with timbral research and the construction of complex sonic environments.

Remiddi, vocalist and guitarist, internationally known for his project Porcelain Raft, brings an intimate, cinematic, and deeply human sensibility to the trio’s writing.

Pappalardo, an electroacoustic artist active in contemporary music and sound art, as well as a lecturer in electroacoustic composition, designs both analogue and digital instruments and devices, introducing a strongly experimental and performative dimension to the group’s language.

Since 2021, the trio has presented its research in contexts ranging from concert performances to audiovisual productions. MASMAS have created live scores for Rä di Martino’s film Controfigura at MACRO Museum, collaborated with performer Silvia Calderoni on Moonbird, and composed the soundtrack for Edoardo Morabito’s documentary L’Avamposto (2023), presented at the Venice Biennale during the Giornate degli Autori programme.

Their work has been featured at Triennale Milano, Mattatoio Roma, PhEST in Monopoli, Vive le Cinema Festival in Lecce, and Avvistamenti in Bisceglie.

In 2026, they released Make a Mess, their debut album, produced by Dischi Durevoli Records.

In parallel, MASMAS established a permanent laboratory in Rome’s Alessandrino district, where they record and experiment with new sonic languages. In the coming months, the space will host instrument-building and improvisation workshops, including collaborations with Nuova Consonanza, with the aim of creating a small “neighbourhood orchestra.”

FOROF

FOROF is a unique institution in Rome dedicated to fostering dialogue between archaeology and contemporary art, history and experimentation, through a multifaceted cultural programme and innovative services. Founded by Giovanna Caruso Fendi in 2022, FOROF embodies a pioneering model of cultural entrepreneurship aimed at generating lasting positive social impact through a programme centred on exchange, dialogue, and the encounter between past and present.

Located within the historic Palazzo del Gallo di Roccagiovine, opposite Trajan’s Column in the Imperial Fora, FOROF preserves, in partnership with Rome’s Archaeological Superintendency, the coloured marble flooring of the Basilica Ulpia and the remains of its eastern apse (2nd century CE) in its underground spaces.

Committed to sharing art through an innovative relationship between history, archaeology, and contemporary artistic practice, FOROF presents a programme of site-specific projects in which Italian and international artists—selected by its scientific committee for their ability to engage with the space and its cultural context—are invited to create exhibitions or environmental installations in dialogue with the archaeological site. Each season is accompanied by a different curator.

In the multifunctional area facing the street and overlooking the Imperial Fora, every exhibition activates a parallel programme of performances, readings, talks, and participatory musical interventions, transforming audiences from spectators into active participants.

FOROF inaugurated its programme in 2022 with an immersive installation by SOUNDWALK Collective curated by Threes Productions, followed by Alex Cecchetti’s spiritual journey curated by Maria Alicata (2022), Augustas Serapinas’s Baltic adventure curated by Ilaria Gianni (2023), and GELITIN/GELATIN’s irreverent project curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi (2024). Each exhibition season is further activated through a programme of in-depth public events known as Episodes.

PUBLIC INFORMATION

Foro Traiano, 1 – Rome | info@forof.it | www.forof.it
TIBIA June 18, 2026 | 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Admission by reservation via vivaticket.com, subject to availability.

INFRASUPRA Open to the public through July 29, 2026
By appointment, Wednesday to Sunday, 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
For information and reservations: 39 351 626 2553 | booking@forof.it