Home » New life to the old. At the Palazzo delle Esposizioni Francesco Vezzoli between archeology and the contemporary – Rome

New life to the old. At the Palazzo delle Esposizioni Francesco Vezzoli between archeology and the contemporary – Rome

by admin
New life to the old.  At the Palazzo delle Esposizioni Francesco Vezzoli between archeology and the contemporary – Rome

Sleeping hermaphrodite, early Antonine age, from Rome, domus next to the Teatro dell’Opera, Micro-Asian marble, 150 x 56 cm Museo Nazionale Romano | Palazzo Massimo, cat. 1087 | Photo: © Simona Sansonetti

Roma – Francesco Vezzoli rummages in the archeology and deposits of the Roman National Museum to give new life to the ancient.
From 22 April to 27 August, an unprecedented itinerary that intertwines contemporary art, archeology and cinema will present the exhibition at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome Sweet lifecurated by Francesco Vezzoli and Stéphane Verger.
Conceived by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, Museo Nazionale Romano and Studio Vezzoli, the project takes its cue from the artist’s most recent production increasingly directed towards ancient art, the past and its icons, driven by different languages, in a game of references and mixes between the solemnity of classical culture and the pop wave.

Bust of Hadrian in cuirass, marble, National Roman Museum | Palazzo Massimo, cat. 172224 | Photo: © SAR Photo Service

The exhibition – the first entirely self-produced by Palaexpo – will see contemporary art dialogue with Roman history through the works from the premises of the National Roman Museum, taking into account the representation that Roman history has been provided through cinema during the twentieth century.
“We have to concretely rediscover the deposits of the Roman National Museum – explains the director Stéphane Verger during a press conference that anticipates the contents of the exhibition -. We are very pleased to start a fruitful collaboration with the Palaexpo Special Company, thanks to which the public will discover, alongside some of the museum’s well-known masterpieces, many little-known or even never-seen objects, which we took out of the huge deposits on the occasion of the show. These “Depositi (Re)discovered” take on a particular meaning thanks to the extraordinary vision of Francesco Vezzoli, who projects ancient objects into a decidedly contemporary perspective”.

See also  Emergency first aid, Emiliano calls retired doctors and general practitioners to report

Immersed in a suggestive theatrical dimension designed by the artist Filippo Bisagni, and enhanced by a play of light and shadow conceived by Luca Bigazzi, the finds and contemporary works selected by Vezzoli and Verger dialogue within a complex path made up of stratifications and combinations of distant aesthetic levels, different eras, cultured art and popular art. Around the Sala Rotonda, the visitor will see seven thematic rooms develop, each dedicated to a particular aspect of the history of the Roman Empire. From the first titled Prepare for wardedicated to the theme of war and the cult of the power of the male body, where a portrait of Alexander the Great from Palazzo Massimo, a head of the god Mars and a monumental torso of the Emperor Domitian dressed as a fighting Hercules, from the deposits of the Baths of Diocletian, will relate to a re-interpretation of the myth of Achilles and Penthesilea, we pass, in the second room, to the cult of Antinous founded by the Emperor Hadrian.


Francesco Vezzoli, The gaze of Hadrian, 2018, Roman marble head (117 -138 AD) | Courtesy Francesco Vezzoli, Almine Rech Gallery, Franco Noero Gallery and Apalazzogallery | Photo: © Sebastiano Pellion Di Persano

If the third party Woman in, celebrates the woman, from her most aggressive and threatening to the most passionate personifications, also with the installation of 75 sculptures of ex-voto wombs, the cult of the dead represented with an installation of about 50 marble tombstones, coming from the deposits of Baths of Diocletian, guides visitors to the fourth room (Be sure to all).
The famous sequence of Trimalchio’s dinner from Satyricon by Fellini is the backdrop, in the fifth stage of this journey, to an installation of sculptures (heads and busts of historical figures) set up as in a Dionysian banquet, at the center of which appears theSleeping hermaphrodite of the second century. aCone of the most iconic works in the National Roman Museum. A parade of portraits of Roman emperors from the Palazzo Massimo collection will cross the sixth stage of this itinerary, entitled Where power reignswhile the last room looks at the fall of the Roman Empire, A mixture of madnessthrough precious fragments and finds, many of which come from the Crypta Balbi headquarters, which act as a counterbalance to the projection of Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal’s Caligula (2005).

See also  CRB beats CSA in the first Alagoano classic with three goals from Anselmo Ramon


Francesco Vezzoli, Achille!, 2021, Italian marble bust (19th century), green marble base, plaster, acrylic paint | Courtesy Francesco Vezzoli, Almine Rech Gallery, Franco Noero Gallery and Apalazzogallery | Photo: © Alessandra Chemollo, Brescia Museums Foundation

“Visiting the deposits of the National Roman Museum – confesses Francesco Vezzoli – I literally went crazy. I found there an emotional dimension of daily humanity that responds to my approach to archeology and the past. Everything I do is aimed at reviving . Looking at these wonders, among heads, busts leaning on metal shelves, sadly abandoned, was moving. At a certain point in these baskets I recognized some ovoid objects: they were dozens of wombs, terracotta ex votos. The emotion in the imagining all these women who had created them as gestures of thanksgiving for unexpected fertility was strong. They resembled private love letters between the human being and the divinity. The goal of this project is also to bring back a tangible archeology , alive, to describe the theater of present life using works of art made two thousand years ago”.

The exhibition is promoted by the Ministry of Culture, Roma Culture, the Palaexpo Special Company and the Roman National Museum and is organized by the Palaexpo Special Company.

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

Privacy & Cookies Policy