Rome’s new mayor, Gianni Alemanno - a former street-fighting neo-fascist - wowed TV audiences last night with a bit of archaeological and architectural “shock and awe.”
Speaking on the popular show, “Porta a porta,” the mayor announced that he’ll be holding a referendum to allow Roman citizens to decide the fate of the Ara Pacis museum, which was designed by American architect Richard Meier and which opened to the public in 2006 after a decade of construction (and associated delays). Talking about this much maligned building, the neo-mayor (as the Italian papers are calling him) said:
The first occasion we have where we will not need money to spend on elections we will promote a city referendum to decide whether to keep Meier’s structure or not.
If our citizens opt not to keep it we will move it to the suburbs.
Alemanno added:
It is an issue of compatibility: the [building] is in a baroque part of the city, and that style suits the area. It is not a priority, but I think that some interventions were excessively invasive.
Really? Will the Ara Pacis go with it or will Augustus’s altar stay where it is? From the comments above, it seems that it’s only the building that Alemanno wants to exile to the outskirts and not the ancient artwork that it houses. And so what of Augustus’s altar? One can only imagine that it will neatly boxed up and surrounded with scaffolding for many years.
In the interest of full disclosure, it must be admitted that we at the eCool Compound have mixed feelings about Meier’s museum. There are aspects that we like, for example the gorgeous sunlight that streams through the glass walls and enlivens Augustus’s oh-so-neat-and-tidy monument, as well as the simple fact that we can actually see and visit the ancient altar after the ten-year political and architectural debacle that took place while Meier’s building was under construction. (We can’t get into that here. It’s just to much to dredge it all up again. If you’re looking for information about that decade-long controversy, we suggest you start with this Newsweek article and this New York Times article.)
That said, there are also things about Meier’s building that we hate. From some angles it looks like a stark white fortress constructed to defend the banks of the Tiber from the invasion of post-modern monsters that might rise from the muddy mess that is Rome’s venerable river.
Yet, when all is said and done, Meier’s building is at last finished - and the ancient monument it houses (which looks almost as good as it did when it was dedicated in 9 BC) can be admired and studied once again. In this city of slow-moving public works, that alone is something for which to be grateful.
Yet, Mr. Alemanno is not convinced. He hates the building (or at least he’s clever enough to capitalize on general Roman disdain for the new museum) and so he’s called for an old-fashioned damnatio memoriae.
The subtext for his TV announcement seems to go something like this: “Let’s get rid of the Ara Pacis Museum and thereby erase the memory of Rome’s past culture minister, Francesco Rutelli. Left-leaning liberals be gone! They allowed foreign architects to march on Rome and to spoil the city, but I’m here to claim the Eterna back for its citizens!”
Mamma mia! Mr. Alemanno is going to be a formidable force. Clearly he understands that any effort to rule modern Rome necessarily involves the politization of antiquity and archaeology. Thus Augustus - an emperor so privileged and prized by Rome’s last liberal administration - is headed for the sticks.
In honor of Mr. Alemanno’s appalling announcement, we’ve invented a new category for the eCool Blog - it’s called “Surely You Jest” and we suspect that in the coming months we’ll have the opportunity to make many entries under that heading.
