The Tiber for the ancients it was an inexhaustible source of life. Water, symbolic and cathartic. The great river of Rome, the Tiber – an iconic and identifying element of the Capital – with its prestigious past but also future history, will be the protagonist Saturday 11 May of the artistic event Piazza Tevere on the water’s edge: a day of talks and projections on the walls of Piazza Tevere – in correspondence with the Kentridge murals – to rethink new scenarios of an inclusive, eco-sustainable Capital.
The “Piazza Tevere a Filo d’Acqua” event in Rome
This will be an initiative that will combine environment and creativity to reflect on the nature of the river itself, also creating a network connecting society and the environment. The Tiber, connected by ancient legends with the foundation of Rome, always played a fundamental role in the life and economy of the city. Piazza Tevere on the water’s edge it is an initiative that will host the screening as a preview Tiber Expo Of Iginio De Luca, multifaceted, provocative and visionary artist. Numerous interventions are planned: the architect Flaminia Bonifaci di Fontana Più Stella, Andrea Conti (Andreco), Raffaella Bullo (Polytechnic University of the Marche), Giorgio De Finis (RIF- Museum of the Suburbs), Claudia Pecoraro (museologist and curator) , Saverio Teruzzi (Cittàdellarte – Pistoletto Foundation), Adriano Labucci (Councillor for Ecological Transition of the 1st Municipality of Rome), the art critic Pietro Gaglianò, the curator Sabrina Vedovotto, Nicolas Martino art critic and the Councilor for Culture of The Municipality of Rome, Giulia Ghia.
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Contemporary art to enhance the Tiber
I am organizing the event Star Fountain Of Flamina Bonifaci And the Tevereterno Association, active in the area since 2004, committed to promoting the space between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini, a square dedicated to contemporary art and a participatory public place, open to citizens. Chaired by Rosario PaviaTevereterno has created a plurality of artistic initiatives over the years between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini: first with the great she-wolves of Kristin Jones and recently with the figures of Triumphs and Laments Of William Kentridge. These works revealed the potential of the place, trying to enhance a space for contemporary art and to animate the Tiber, supporting its transformation into a river park: the central park of the Capital.
Interview with Monica Scanu, vice president of Tevereterno
We reached the vice president of Tevereterno, Monica Scanu, who since 2019 has been the President of the FAI – Sardinia’s Italian Environment Fund. Still in the field of volunteering, since 2021 she has been vice-president of Tevereterno, an association based in Rome that deals with contemporary art on site in Piazza Tevere. Among her various skills and experiences, she collaborated with Roma Capitale from 2009 to 2012 and was part of the staff of the Councilor for Cultural and Communication Policies and subsequently in the Urban Planning sector at the Historic City Office. Here’s what you told us about the Tevereterno projects.
Let’s start with the Tevereterno Association: how was this project born, what is its history and its focal point?
Tevereterno’s story is a very beautiful one, a story of passion and energy: it was founded in 2004 by the Italian-American artist Kristin Jones, currently president emerita, and by the architects Carlo Gasparrini, Rosario Pavia and Luca Zevi. Together they identified a “square” in the central stretch of the Tiber that goes from Ponte Sisto to Ponte Mazzini on the right bank, a public space dedicated to site-specific contemporary arts, and they saw the walls no longer as limits but rather as surfaces intended for ephemeral art creations to be created with techniques compatible with the place. In 2019, Kentridge said the walls would become “a virgin slate for new writing”, following the reabsorption of his work in travertine stones. That of the founders was a beautiful intuition: the Tevereterno project has lasted for twenty years, first carried out by Kristin Jones and the founders with great passion and then by a multitude of people who over the years have committed themselves to Tevereterno together with always new ideas, and from a population of volunteers and members that is constantly growing.
We are talking about a stretch of the Tiber, Piazza Tevere, where in all these years you have organized artistic events of great originality. What is the objective of Piazza Tevere? Go back to being a public space?
The objective of Piazza Tevere coincides with the mission of Tevereterno: to be a place of aggregation – it is a space of 550 meters x 100, with walls 12 meters high – intended for contemporary art and site-specific works, and to involvement of Roman citizens, tourists and enthusiasts in the redevelopment of the river. Over the years, important artistic events have been organized in this public place: from the project She Wolves by Kristin Jones, to the unforgettable Triumphs&Laments by William Kentridge from 2016, to the most recent Witnesses Of Maria Thereza Alvesa work from 2022, until Third Paradise Of Michelangelo Pistoletto in October 2023 as part of the Tiber Day initiatives. And again: the walks along the Tiber, those as part of Open House Rome from the Gianicolo to Piazza Tevere, meetings, visits to other places along the route of the Tiber, talks, small concerts. Still regarding the square, for years we have been working for the recognition of Piazza Tevere from a toponymic point of view.
Let’s talk about the initiative Piazza Tevere on the water’s edge: how will the event be structured?
First of all, the event will be preceded by a walk from Ponte Sublicio (starting at 4pm from the Porta Portese side) to Piazza Tevere, an initiative within the project The Tiber as a Jubilee route. The event Piazza Tevere Along the water, developed in collaboration with Flaminia Bonifaci di Fontana Più Stella, is divided into three moments. The focuses of the talks are “environment and public art”, “Tiber and its degradation”, “art as an element of denunciation but also of regeneration”. A first talk at 6pm, entitled Ecological transition and public artwhich will open with an introduction by Rosario Pavia and myself, and a second talk at 7.15 pm, At the water’s edgein which we will go into the specifics of the work Tiber Expo by Iginio De Luca, with whose projection on the walls the event will end. With us artists, museologists, museum and foundation directors, art critics, curators. Two councilors from the first municipality of the Municipality of Rome, Adriano Labbucci (Ecological Transition), and Giulia Silvia Ghia (Culture), who wanted and contributed to the realization of the event, will participate in the two talks.
How did you meet Iginio De Luca?
I have known the work of Iginio De Luca for some time and I had recently seen one of his works in a group show at the Roman gallery Blocco 13, but in reality in this case it was his gallery owner, our newly registered Flaminia, who introduced us to proposed his work Tiber Expoalready awarded as part of “Cantica 21. Italian Contemporary Art Everywhere”, a work of great visual impact and interesting because it talks about the Tiber and raises important questions about its conditions.
What is the relationship between art and city, art and nature?
In my opinion there is a great need for contemporary art in cities, in its historic and more recent parts. We need art to draw the attention of our hearts and our distracted eyes to places and the environment, to their beauty, to their state of degradation, to help us understand their importance, to read them with a different gaze , and stimulate us to act, do something to solve, improve, grow. Every artistic event that takes place in the public spaces of the city has an important meaning, which is not only that of the work itself, already large, but also that of the anthropized, built or natural space that surrounds it. One makes the other more valuable and vice versa. Art is oxygen and nourishment for the mind, joy for the eyes and the heart: it is life, where it is, there is harmony, which is created both with the city and with the environment, the spaces in which human life takes place.
We are in a delicate context, that of the Tiber. Often a forgotten place, an area of decay over the years.
The Tiber is like a ribbon that connects many parts of the city, it is a loved, lived place and a source of livelihood for some, like the two fishing families who operated after Ponte Marconi. In its most central urban part it flows between very high banks, built in 1870: the river cannot be seen, perceived or heard, but to reach it you still have to go down several steps, or arrive on foot from the points where it is possible. It becomes a place of decay when there is no project, there is no maintenance or management, when there is a lack of lighting, cleanliness and seating. Last October we created an edition of Pistoletto’s work with Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto Third Paradise, placing 22 benches along Piazza Tevere according to a drawing by the artist. Here, those benches, beyond the events organized by Tevereterno, became a meeting place for citizens and tourists of all ages day and night.
The collaboration between Tevereterno and Fontana Più Stella. The architect Flaminia Bonifaci speaks
Promoters of the event on May 11, 2024, in addition to Tevereterno, is also Star Fountain of the architect Flaminia Bonifaciwhich tells us about the collaborative relationship during the screening of Iginio De Luca’s video.
Architect, How was the artistic project born together with Tevereterno?The preview video projection of the video Tiber Expo of the artist Iginio De Luca finds a natural welcoming space in Piazza Tevere. The walls will become a big screen for the occasion. But Piazza Tevere is much more: a project by the Tevereterno association to make this area a living public space. And this is precisely the artist’s reflection, that of illuminating the river, the unconscious of the city, returning it to public space.
We also talk about the planning of Fontana Più Stella and what its objective and focus are.
I had the pleasure of sharing the artist’s work together with the Tevereterno association and promoting it through the sponsorship of Fontana Più Stella, a residence in Rome with a privileged relationship with the river in terms of history and position but also a project to promote the scene culture of the city.
Alessandra Paparelli
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