Stéphane Dupont

The graphic designer Stéphane Dupont during her residency at Villa Medici in March 2021, explores the popular tradition of ex-votos, small slabs of engraved marble placed by a community of anonymous people on certain walls in Rome.

 

 

 

 

 

“Their accumulation is the collective, urban expression of thanks, desire or gratitude, addressed to the Madonna, Rome or perhaps any other acting figure. Their appearance is old-fashioned, sober and typographic, without illustration or color; the format, shape, typeface and layout vary. have barely been around for centuries. These small votive plaques are also the result of the rare and precise skills of the engravers and the engraver – for there is only one, Hanna – from the San Lorenzo district, to whom the intimate stories accompanying the commission are entrusted, and whose gestures are as fascinating to observe as the finished plaques.”