Coliseum on Fire
17/09/10 17:29 Coliseum on Fire
Burning the Roots of Western Culture
Rome, September 17-18-19 2010
A Video installation by Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz
Curated by Gianni Mercurio, Christina Clausen
Rossella Rea, Piero Meogrossi - Special Department for Rome's Archaeological Heritage
Coliseum on Fire
In September the Coliseum will burn down! Coliseum on Fire is the title for this seductive and spectacular artistic gesture that involves the world's most famous ancient monument: the Coliseum.
For the artists behind this video-installation (Thyra Hilden from Denmark and Pio Diaz from Argentina) the basic idea is an overwhelming fire that will entirely consume the Roman arena. The video-installation will take place consecutively on the nights of the 17th, 18th, and 19th of September.
The Coliseum is the ideal venue for this site-specific project, that concerns the strong ambiguous forces of fire, destruction and re-birth. The artists wish to rise discussions around social and cultural challenges.
The project is promoted by the Ministry for the Heritage and Cultural Affairs, and the Special Superintendence for Rome's Archaeological Heritage. It is curated by Gianni Mercurio (art curator), Christina Clausen (Danish film director), together with Rossella Rea (archaeologist and the superintendent of the Coliseum), and Piero Meogrossi (architect and the technical director of the Coliseum); it is supported by the Ministry for the Protection of the Environment, and the Rome City Council.
Coliseum on Fire is part of a wider project, City on Fire, which the artists Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz have devoted themselves to for some years, creating virtual fires in important institutions, monuments, museums, and churches throughout Europe. The events in Berlin, Frankfurt, Kiev, Aarhus, and Copenhagen were especially memorable.
For City on Fire, the artists choose monuments considered to be part of Europe's cultural heredity and, with an efficient technical back-up, they spark off a destructive yet innovatory fire, provoking the public's opposite emotions. The objective is to create an exchange of ideas with society on the theme of fragility and the transience of constructions built by man.
The Coliseum is the symbol of a cultural heritage that has lasted through time. The symbolic inferno that the artists enact has the aim of making us think about what the loss of our cultural patrimony would mean.
And through this blazing fire they intend to make us aware of our responsibility, to provoke in us primary instinctive reactions, and to make us think.
Rome, September 17-18-19 2010
A Video installation by Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz
Curated by Gianni Mercurio, Christina Clausen
Rossella Rea, Piero Meogrossi - Special Department for Rome's Archaeological Heritage
Coliseum on Fire
In September the Coliseum will burn down! Coliseum on Fire is the title for this seductive and spectacular artistic gesture that involves the world's most famous ancient monument: the Coliseum.
For the artists behind this video-installation (Thyra Hilden from Denmark and Pio Diaz from Argentina) the basic idea is an overwhelming fire that will entirely consume the Roman arena. The video-installation will take place consecutively on the nights of the 17th, 18th, and 19th of September.
The Coliseum is the ideal venue for this site-specific project, that concerns the strong ambiguous forces of fire, destruction and re-birth. The artists wish to rise discussions around social and cultural challenges.
The project is promoted by the Ministry for the Heritage and Cultural Affairs, and the Special Superintendence for Rome's Archaeological Heritage. It is curated by Gianni Mercurio (art curator), Christina Clausen (Danish film director), together with Rossella Rea (archaeologist and the superintendent of the Coliseum), and Piero Meogrossi (architect and the technical director of the Coliseum); it is supported by the Ministry for the Protection of the Environment, and the Rome City Council.
Coliseum on Fire is part of a wider project, City on Fire, which the artists Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz have devoted themselves to for some years, creating virtual fires in important institutions, monuments, museums, and churches throughout Europe. The events in Berlin, Frankfurt, Kiev, Aarhus, and Copenhagen were especially memorable.
For City on Fire, the artists choose monuments considered to be part of Europe's cultural heredity and, with an efficient technical back-up, they spark off a destructive yet innovatory fire, provoking the public's opposite emotions. The objective is to create an exchange of ideas with society on the theme of fragility and the transience of constructions built by man.
The Coliseum is the symbol of a cultural heritage that has lasted through time. The symbolic inferno that the artists enact has the aim of making us think about what the loss of our cultural patrimony would mean.
And through this blazing fire they intend to make us aware of our responsibility, to provoke in us primary instinctive reactions, and to make us think.
