art
SPQR
The idea for an exhibition may be triggered by an illumination or form slowly inside us until finally becoming clear. The “Senatus Popolusque Romanus” exhibition was derived from the latter type. I asked myself why I kept a booklet sent to me by Marco Delogu showing Polaroids of Roman busts taken at the Capitoline Museums on the table. Time went by but the book remained on the table. Then by chance, I noticed the similarity of the subject of a work being painted by Stefano Di Stasio with an emperor photographed by Delogu. That gave me the idea for an exhibition that would pair and compare the work of the painter and the photographer. The lineaments of the ancient quiritians would be seen again in the faces of contemporary Romans. Marco Delogu used side lights to illuminate the marble faces in the shadows of the museum, making them seem alive. Di Stasio harnessed the time machine of painting to steal those senators and common people from the past and copy their DNA: placing the alienated figures in contemporary urban settings, in a metaphysical present that absorbs the original antiquity.
The concept behind this exhibition is a kind of artistic cloning.
Fabio Saregentini
Rome, 23 December 2002
Giulia Mamea, Rome 2002
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