Beyond Triumphs and Laments

Beyond “Triumphs and Laments”? The marvellous procession piece by William Kentridge, created by selectively removing parts of the biological patina on the embankment wall between the Sisto and Mazzini bridges in the centre of Rome, was not only the most compelling artistic moment in the association Tevereterno’s fourteen years of activity. The fruitful triangulation of art, space, and society realised in this work has been characterised by a multitude of temporary installations by other artists from all over the world and for different social and cultural events. The aim has been to respond to demands for public space and for “hot connections” to the city involving the walls and abandoned banks of the Tiber river. The evocative and symbolic power of the procession piece, five hundred metres long and nine metres high, includes in its narrative all the cities of the planet in whose history to every “triumph” corresponds a “debacle”. The life of this amazing ephemeral monument extends beyond its incremental disappearance due to the gradual reappearance of the wall’s biological patina. Between a sad farewell and a fossil existing only on postcards, there is a third option for the artwork: confirming the meaning ascribed to this gigantic urban wall by periodically rewriting it, every time its disappearance threatens. The planning of a new frieze will transform the ephemeral nature of the first into a creative fade-out, providing a sequence of new interpretations: an unusual cinematographic sequence, slow but oscillating, made of sketches, icons, evocations and provocations, movements, overlays, and slippages. The embankment wall will represent a sensitive screen, displaying an evanescent palimpsest on which the city can tell its tales: a collective and shared commitment to the valorisation of such “minor” cultural heritage as transforms the Tiber River from a large hydraulic machine into a communicative infrastructure of contemporary public space.