British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
'Viva Roma!'
Cristiana Perrella (Curator of the Contemporary Arts Programme at the British School at Rome) on behalf of the British School at Rome
A distinctive feature of the British School at Rome is its involvement in the Fine Arts. Through its programme of exhibitions, it encourages engagement of British artists in Italy, and stimulates crossover between scholarly research and contemporary cultural trends. This video presentation focuses on one aspect of a rich and varied programme commissioned by the School.
The Contemporary Arts programme is also sponsored by the Henry Moore Foundation and the British Council.
For further information, visit: http://www.bsr.ac.uk/BSR/sub_arts/BSR_Arts01.htm
Summary
The Contemporary Arts Programme of BSR since 1991 has developed a series of events focused on the dialogue between British and international artists. One particular project, the series of commissions entitled Viva Roma!, has provoked a more involved engagement with Italian culture, by inviting British artists to make site-specific works on Rome, inspired by any aspect of the city.
Sophy Rickett, Plinio Seniore, 2003
From the first commision, by Cerith Wynn Evans in 1998, a range of distinguished artists have taken part. In 1999-2000, the Viva Roma! project commissioned and produced Threshold to the Kingdom, a video by Mark Wallinger, which caught the spirit of the Jubilee, filming passengers as they entered the arrival hall of the airport; the video was chosen to represent Great Britain in the Venice Biennial in 2001. The Anglo-Nigerian artist Yinke Shonibare devised a project expressly for the exhibition spaces of the Museo Andersen with a theme congenial to his own artistic work, which right from the start has been linked to the figure of the 'dandy', in the sense of an outsider who turns his diversity into a source of strength and even of pride. Artist-musician Robin Rimbaud, aka Scanner, worked on the sound of Michelangelo Antonioni's masterpiece L'Eclisse, filmed in Rome, and composed 7 new tracks.
Photographer Sophy Rickett made a series of images taken within Villa Borghese, continuing the exploration of green areas inside the urban context, which has characterised her work in the last few years. The latest Viva Roma! commission presented Untitled and Unfinished (Afghanistan), the project that Jonathan Monk carried out in 2004-2005, dedicated to the memory of major Italian artist Alighiero Boetti. The work connected Rome - where Boetti moved to from his native Turin and where he is buried - with his beloved Afghanistan, the country that, from the Seventies, Boetti visited often, and where he started on his Arazzi cycle, coloured tapestries made by the local women.