Our thanks to Stefano Tarquini/The Lunatics, the cultural association that brings together the most famous Italian collectors of Pink Floyd, for this report - and the great pictures, too - on the opening of the new (temporary) home for The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains. Visit their website at www.thelunatics.it.

The Lunatics have ten pieces on display (see picture, below) in the Italian staging of the exhibition, which is open now at Rome's Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma, also known as MACRO. The exhibition runs until May 20th 2018. Tickets are now available through Vivaticket and as we've noted before, advance booking is highly recommended.

Now, over to Stefano...

On January 16th "The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains" was presented at the MACRO in Rome, with the presence of the Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, and the councillor for culture Luca Bergamo, together with two of the members of the band, Nick Mason and Roger Waters.

After the huge success at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the exhibition has now arrived in Rome for the first international staging; an exhibition that celebrates the historic British rock band 50 years after its birth.

Roger Waters and Nick Mason arrived in Rome to present it. The bassist recalled the strong bond in his life between him and Italy, in particular with Aprilia, where his father died, and Anzio. Waters appears detached from the band's glorious past: "I was struck by this exposure because I saw things that I had not seen for a long time and brought back many memories, but everything we've done interests me a little. Of course we have achieved great things that have remained, I am proud of it, but there is much more. I have not been part of Pink Floyd for 38 years and more than in the past I'm interested in the present.

"If we place down these phones, stop taking pictures and try to understand how difficult is the situation, it would be a good start." Waters continued: "You can not live in a state of permanent war. I live in the US and most of the taxes I pay are invested to bomb distant countries like Ecuador, Syria and Palestine for profit and the grossest nationalism. We try to put walls between races and nationalities, but in the end we are all Homo Sapiens, coming from Africa. We are all Africans, which we should always keep in mind".

The exhibition's audiovisual route follows the career of Pink Floyd, starting from the underground London scene of the '60s and the psychedelia with Syd Barrett, until the last record and the "Live8" event performance. There are over 350 objects, including musical instruments, writings, posters, photos and video clips in which you immerse yourself wearing Sennheiser headphones with the music and the ever present voices of the band members Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and even the disappeared Syd Barrett and Richard Wright.

The most impressive rooms are those dedicated to three of their masterpiece albums: "The Dark Side of the Moon", "The Wall" and "Animals", where there is the terrifying teacher of The Wall and the famous pink pig Algie. And there is also the extraordinary and unforgettable "Live at Pompeii" from 1971, conceived as an anti-Woodstock documentary. The exhibition ends with the simulation of "Comfortably Numb" taken from the Live8 concert, where you enter a room showcasing the last performance of the rock band with a complete line-up.

There is even a surprise: just before entering the first room of the exhibition, there is a tribute to Italy, with a dozen collectibles-pieces from the cultural association, THE LUNATICS, the famous Italian collectors club, authors of three books about the band. Ten pieces including posters, records and tickets, dedicated to Italian tours, that ideally representing the whole world of Italian collectors.

"The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains" is at the MACRO in Rome, Italy, from January 19th to May 20th 2018.