Artistic Reconfigurations of Rome : An Alternative Guide to the Eternal City, 1989-2014

In Artistic Reconfigurations of Rome Kaspar Thormod examines how visions of Rome manifest themselves in artworks produced by contemporary international artists who have stayed at the city's foreign academies. Artistic Reconfigurations of Rome: An Alternative Guide to the Eternal City, 1989–2014 Copyright Contents Preface by Mieke Bal Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction: International artists in Rome 1 Roman Historiography 2 Foreign Academies and International Artists 3 The Contemporary 4 Close Engagement with Artworks 5 Comments on the Sources 1 Institutions: Making the Foreign Academies in Rome 1 Transforming the Locale 2 Institutional Critique 3 Making Institutions 2 Sites: Negotiating the Spectacle of Rome 1 Defamiliarisation Strategies 2 Projections 3 Globalised Landscapes 4 Reconfiguring Roman Sites 3 People: Portraying the Romans 1 Visitors and Locals 2 Inmates and Partners 3 Double Portrait 4 The Potential of Contemporary Portraiture 4 History: Re-envisioning Roman Narratives 1 Material Matters 2 Machines, Gods and Ghosts 3 Touching at a Distance 4 Twisted Narratives 5 Critical Reflections on Historical Narratives 5 Art: Creating a Rome of One's Own 1 Spoliation 2 Copiously Copied 3 Critical Re-stagings 4 New (After)Life Epilogue: Rome Maps Inventory of Artists Bibliography Original Sources Secondary Literature Index In Artistic Reconfigurations of Rome Kaspar Thormod examines how visions of Rome manifest themselves in artworks produced by international artists who have stayed at the city's foreign academies. Structured as an alternative guide to Rome, the book represents an interdisciplinary approach to creating a dynamic visual history that brings into view facets of the city's diverse contemporary character. Thormod demonstrates that when artists successfully reconfigure Rome they provide us with visions that, being anchored in a present, undermine the connotations of permanence and immovability that cling to the 'Eternal City' epithet. Looking at the work of these artists, the reader is invited to engage critically with the question: what is Rome today? - or perhaps better: what can Rome be?