Lateral Roma is an independent art space located in the Appio Latino district of Rome, Italy. Lateral Roma was founded by Geraldine Tedder and Mathias Ringgenberg a.k.a PRICE in October 2020 and is run by a team of artists and curators, currently: Laura Cabezas, Marta Federici, Jazmina Figueroa, Camilla Paolino, Jacopo Rinaldi and PRICE; previously: Tobias Koch and Geraldine Tedder. We are a self-organized project broadening our program beyond exhibition formats into a wider field of exchange, production, and research.
Lateral Roma’s programming is based on lateral thinking. Lateral thinking, as opposed to vertical thinking, is rooted in the erotic; it is fantastical, even irrational thinking that does not follow an obvious train of thought. It challenges routine, pattern, and norm, representing their symbolic resistance. It is playful, sometimes strange and surreal, and follows principles such as mistake/accident/humor: “You can park anywhere you like, as long as you like, as long as you leave your headlights full on”.
Film screening WE NO LONGER PREFER MOUNTAINS by Inas Halabi
June 8, 2025 – 8 PM, free entry
Address: Lateral Roma, Via Ferdinando Ughelli 28, 00179 Roma
Lateral Roma is thrilled to present and invite you to a special one night screening of the film WE NO LONGER PREFER MOUNTAINS (2023, 95 min, Arabic, English subtitles) by Inas Halabi. Screened in Italy for the first time, Halabi’s film addresses the political and social condition of the Druze community living in occupied Palestine, taking individual and personal stories as a point of departure.
WE NO LONGER PREFER MOUNTAINS begins with an ascent of Mount Carmel upon which the Druze towns of Dalyet el Carmel and Isfiya are located, drawing the viewer into a world of geographic isolation and a locale shaped by coercion and control. Weaving together intimate engagements with members of the community in shared domestic spaces and outdoor environments, the film explores how the inner politics of the Druze have been reconfigured and reshaped since the establishment of Israel in 1948; whilst opening up possibilities for imagining alternative futures.
The film is informed by the landscape theory (fûkeiron), a Japanese avant-garde film movement of the 1960s, whereby filmmakers posited that filming everyday surroundings reveals the oppressive and repressively isolating landscapes and the powers at play.
Community struggles are not isolated; they are manifestations of systemic forces that affect individuals and social groups, with a global scope and translocal consequences. As Italy votes on Citizenship Reform on June 8 and 9, 2025, Lateral Roma uses this pivotal moment to center voices impacted by colonial power—from Palestine’s territorial struggles to Europe’s militarized border controls. This connects local and diasporic border debates across Italy under an expanded political framework—recognizing the historical entanglement between varying measures of power and oppression adopted by the prevailing forces of displacement, erasure, and the denial of authentic life.
Inas Halabi (b.1988, Palestine) is an artist and filmmaker. Recent exhibitions and screenings include Luleå Biennial (2024), Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (2023), de Appel Amsterdam (solo 2023), Showroom London (solo 2022), Europalia Festival, Brussels (2021), Silent Green Betonhalle, Berlin (2021); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2020); and Film at Lincoln Center, USA (2020). Her recent work has been supported by Amarte, Amsterdam Fonds Voor de Kunst (AFK), Mondriaan Fund, and Sharjah Art Foundation. She lives and works between Palestine and the Netherlands.
UPCOMING:
Spazio Griot at Lateral Roma presents Damiano Tata, Anche dopo che tutto è finito
June 19 – July 17, 2025
Anche dopo che tutto è finito (Even After Everything Has Ended) is the first solo exhibition by Damiano Tata, curated by Johanne Affricot and Eric Otieno Sumba. The exhibition emerges from an artist residency organized by SPAZIO GRIOT between June and July 2024, which was inspired by the 1959 Second Congress of Black Writers and Artists; it included Tata as one of the participating artists. In this new body of work, created following the residency, the artist explores the interplay between the production and use of chemical agents in the 1930s and 1940s, mass culture, the normalization of violence, and the erasure of colonialism in the Italian context – through sound, text, painting, and drawing.
Damiano Tata (1997, Rome) is an artist and occasional composer living and working in Rome. His work investigates the role and narration of human and non-human otherness in contemporary society, with particular attention to unconventional archival practices that are integrated into complex systems.
SPAZIO GRIOT is a nomadic space that platforms multidisciplinary experimentation, exploration and education in visual and performing arts, music and literature. As a think, feel and do-tank firmly rooted in Rome and beyond, SPAZIO GRIOT hosts exhibitions, performances, screenings, residencies, workshops, readings, panels and public programmes.
IN OTHER NEWS:
NO MOVES TO INNOCENCE: A statement by Lateral Roma to address concerns among cultural workers and artists, published by NERO, read here.
www.instagram.com/lateralroma/
info[at]lateralroma.eu
Lateral Roma
Via Ferdinando Ughelli 28
00179 Roma RM