![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/361c5e7c135b5c63e62b313acaa31058b43293f61a414b6055c33de7c8dc3651/zilda_Accattone-a-San-Lorenzo_rome_unurth_o.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b60654f3b7dbd85680a700a5b7925bab1f059419bd955228f7b71a4cbc3a9f41/zilda_Giuseppe-Pasquale_rome_unurth_o.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/be0030155ec31d5aa191d26c5812ce1eb2d271ddac75cd2f61b5fafaa131553a/zilda_Mamma-Roma-Ettore-a-Garbatella_rome_unurth_o.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f5a3271a8619faf6c9c7439e8697422f05e822d74b330a785dc7118b3746fed/zilda_Stella-al-Trastevere_rome_unurth_o.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/19023eeb96ef8f99dd2bafdbef6e03cceea824f1eae67dff7070faf11e82fbc9/zilda_Umberto D a Monti_rome_unurth_o.jpg)
French artist Zilda's wonderful project, 'Io sono una forza del passato' ('I am a force of the past'), places figures from classic Roman cinema of the '50s & '60s in rome. as movie characters they are part of romans' collective history; through Zilda's work they are brought into modern life.
The characters are all hand-painted, and then located carefully:
"it is essential to know the social and architectural stratification of a city, to get familiar with its streets, its quarters and to view that urban setting as a constraint that stimulates the staging of my ideas. “Spotting the city” amounts to approaching it like an open-air museum where each wall constitutes a hypothetic painting, a backdrop already developing its own aesthetics and organization of colors and materials.".
Zilda then takes photos of each piece, using the photos as a 'fixer', "immortalizing a set of works doomed to disappear, while they still make sense."
artist: Zilda
location: Rome, Italy
thanks to Jessica at romephotoblog for turning me onto Zilda
© unurth