2015 TE Programming Report

William Kentridge, installation view of Triumphs and Laments exhibition in the Italian Pavilion, 2015 Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Fulvio Ambrosio
2015 END OF YEAR PROGRAMMING REPORT
This is an exciting time for TEVERETERNO, as we conclude our eleventh year of cultural programming, made possible by
people like you, who have joined in our ongoing effort to revitalize Rome’s Tiber River through vibrant contemporary art.
We are delighted to bring you the latest news of our educational and environmental initiatives with international
architecture event Open House Rome and local community organization Retake Rome, as well as our ongoing work
with internationally acclaimed artist William Kentridge toward the realization of Triumphs and Laments: A Project for
the City of Rome (scheduled to open on April 21-22, 2016), including an inside look at the artist’s most recent site tests
on the Tiber and his exhibition of preparatory drawings for the City of Rome at this year’s Venice Biennale.
Founded in 2004, TEVERETERNO is a multidisciplinary project dedicated to the establishment and ongoing
stewardship of Piazza Tevere: the first and largest public space for contemporary art on Rome’s urban waterfront. In
2015, our organization reached over 10,000 people through free public programming at our adopted site, bringing
contemporary art into the heart of the Eternal City. Through collaborations with community associations like Retake
Rome, major cultural institutions like la Biennale di Venezia, and an active online presence that invites public discourse,
we are able to reach several thousand more, both locally and around the world. Many of these people might never
venture into a museum, gallery, or concert hall – but with your help, we are able to bring challenging, innovative, and
inspiring work into their daily lives, creating a lively public space for contemporary art both on and beyond the Tiber.
William Kentridge, preliminary drawing for Triumphs and Laments (2014), a project of TEVERETERNO. Image courtesy the artist.
TEVERETERNO onlus
Piazza di S. Anastasia, 3
00186 – Roma
Italia
289 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10014
USA
[email protected]
www.tevereterno.it
William Kentridge, installation view of Triumphs and Laments exhibition in
the Italian Pavilion, 2015 Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Fulvio Ambrosio
William Kentridge and Kristin Jones at the May 2015 opening of the Triumphs and
Laments exhibition, Italian Pavilion, 2015 Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Gaia Baldini
William Kentridge: Triumphs and Laments at the Venice Biennale
Kentridge’s Drawings for Rome Featured in the Italian Pavilion of La Biennale Arte 2015
TEVERETERNO was very pleased to join South African artist W illiam Kentridge in the Italian Pavilion at this year’s
Biennale di Venezia. Curator Vincenzo Trione invited Kentridge to exhibit in the Italian Pavilion as just one of three
international artists creating major works in homage to the nation of Italy.
On view for the first time, the works exhibited are Kentridge’s exploratory drawings – and a hand-cut stencil, measuring
8m (over 26 feet) long – for Triumphs and Laments, an extraordinary work of astonishing scale. His most ambitious
project to date, Triumphs and Laments will be a 550-meter long, 10-meter high frieze erased from the biological patina
on the embankment walls that line Rome’s urban waterfront. More than 80 figures will depict Rome’s greatest victories
and defeats from mythological time to present, forming a silhouetted procession on Piazza Tevere, TEVERETERNO’s
adopted site between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini on Rome’s Tiber River.
Kentridge’s charcoal drawings will be turned into ink drawings – one of which is currently on view in the Italian Pavilion
(through November 22). The ink drawings will be made into full-scale stencils, like the large cutout figure of Dead
Pasolini illustrated at right. The stencils will then be used to power-wash the travertine walls of Piazza Tevere, which
have been darkened by over a century of pollution and organic growth. The pressurized hot water will remove the
accumulated sediment from the naturally white stone of the embankment walls – cleaning the area around the stencils
to reveal a grand-scale procession of silhouetted figures along the Tiber’s right bank.
William Kentridge
William Kentridge is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading contemporary
artists, embraced by museums and the general public alike. His 2013-14 Refusal of
Time exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art attracted crowds in the tens of
thousands and was hailed by the New York Times as “audience pleasing in the best,
positive sense… ambitious,” going on to say that his 2015 production of Lulu at the
Metropolitan Opera, “put the Met the center of the New York contemporary art
scene.” His work for the city of Rome promises to draw viewers from around the
world to the banks of the Tiber, breathing new life into the city and stimulating broad
public interest in the Piazza Tevere as a unique gathering space and place for
contemporary art.
William Kentridge, Dead Pasolini (2015)
Hand-cut stencil, 4 meters x 8 meters
Italian Pavilion, 2015 Biennale di Venezia.
Photo: Fulvio Ambrosio
2
Test figure (Toro) for Triumphs and Laments, Tiber River, Rome, Italy. Photo: Marcello Melis
Technical Report: An Ephemeral Work for the Eternal City
Site Tests on the Tiber Embankment Walls
This October, TEVERETERNO oversaw a series of site tests on the Tiber River in preparation for the April 2016 opening
of William Kentridge’s grand-scale work for the City of Rome, entitled Triumphs and Laments.
The two test figures, rising up to 10 meters (33 feet) high on the Tiber’s travertine embankment walls, were created with
the same process of selective cleaning that will be used for the complete frieze: the artist’s charcoal sketches are
converted first to ink drawings and then to vectorial files, which are used to create
large-scale, alveolar polypropylene stencils. These large stencils are then temporarily
applied to the wall, and low-pressure water is used to clean the darkened stone around
them. When the stencils are removed, the figures appear in dark grey against a newly
cleaned, white travertine background.
The nature of the technique renders the work temporary; without the application of
biocides or a sealer, the accumulated sediment and the microorganisms that comprise
the stone’s patina will grow back and reclaim the wall, causing the frieze to vanish over
time. It will thus be a temporary installation – a living work, which will disappear
naturally. The stone itself will not be changed in any way.
The temporal nature of the work is very much a part of the artist’s concept; Kentridge has
described the completion of the project as the beginning of a very long film, with the frieze
dissolving slowly back into the patina of the wall over the course of the coming years.
Test Figure (Winged Victory) for
Triumphs and Laments, Tiber River,
Rome, Italy. Photo: G. Lucchino
3
Kermesse (2015), a project of TEVERETERNO produced for Open House Rome 2015, Piazza Tevere, Rome, Italy. Photo: Luca Marcotullio
Open House Rome 2015
An Annual Celebration of the City of Rome
On Saturday, May 9, 2015, TEVERETERNO participated in international architecture event Open House Rom e for
the third consecutive year, featuring a full day of free public programming.
The Paths of Water: from the Janiculum to the Tiber
For the 2015 edition of Open House Rome, TEVERETERNO returned to the Janiculum Hill to explore the passage of
water as it descends toward the Tiber. The architect-guided tour began at the Acqua Paola fountain, proceeding into
the Botanical Gardens and through the gardens of Palazzo Corsini and Villa Farnesina, arriving at our adopted site on the
Tiber River, Piazza Tevere, just before sunset for TEVERETERNO’s evening program, the Kermesse.
Led by TEVERETERNO Onlus Vice President, architect Valeria Sassanelli, The Paths of Water: from the Janiculum to the
Tiber was presented in partnership with the Orto Botanico, the Accademia dei Lincei and the Sovraintendenza Capitolina.
The Paths of Water: from the Janiculum to the Tiber, a public program of
TEVERETERNO for Open House Rome 2015. Photo: Luca Marcotullio
The Paths of Water: from the Janiculum to the Tiber, a public program of
TEVERETERNO for Open House Rome 2015. Photo: Luca Marcotullio
4
The Kermesse
At sunset along the Tiber’s banks, an experimental sound event began to unfold as numerous percussion groups,
students and teachers both, from a variety of Roman music schools came together to play at the Piazza Tevere,
improvising, merging and weaving different styles - Mediterranean, Latin-American, African, Japanese, and more – to
create moments of chance discovery and surprise. The sound of the many instruments, which once accompanied
marches, battles, rituals, oracles, departures, prayers, feasts and dances, echoed across the water and stirred hidden
memories of place through the rich multicultural reality of today’s Rome.
The Kermesse was conceived and coordinated by Isabelle Binet. Participating schools included: l’Associazione
Semilla, the Japanese percussion course of the Associazione Affabulazioni, the Scuola di Tamburello di Davide Conte,
the Scuola di Percussioni di Stefano Rossini Roma, the Franceso Pitarra school, the Scuola di Percussione Timba, the
Istituto Comprensivo Virgilio, Tony William, Duo Benkadi of Inoussa, and Dembele.
Kermesse (2015), a project of TEVERETERNO produced for Open House Rome 2015, Piazza Tevere, Rome, Italy. Photo: Luca Marcotullio
Retake Rome: Tevere Pulito
Earth Day marked the conclusion of ten days of activities on the Tiber, during which TEVERETERNO partnered with
organizations like Retake Rome, John Cabot University Grassroots Club, Trastevere Attiva, Context Travel, Notre
Dame Global Gateway, the U.S. Embassy to Italy, and many others. Director Tom Rankin escorted Ambassador
John Phillips and Linda Douglass to Piazza Tevere, where friends and volunteers of TEVERETERNO joined them to
share the vision and passion behind our dream for the Tiber.
Rome's symbolic birthday (April 21, 2015) was celebrated with a bicycle excursion along the Tiber riverfront with a huge
group of students from Notre Dame Global Gateway, live-tweeting to thousands of followers (#teverepulito).
How You Can Help
TEVERETERNO is committed to producing high quality, contemporary arts projects for the general public,
transforming the Tiber River in Rome into a vibrant, open space through cultural events and educational programming
that support the long-term revitalization of the city’s urban waterfront.
Over the past three years, we have worked in close collaboration with William Kentridge and Philip Miller toward the
realization of Triumphs and Laments – our most ambitious project to date; once complete, it will be the longest frieze
ever created in the history of Rome, and the city's largest artwork since the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We are very
pleased to announce that this spring, Roma Capitale and the Soprintendenza Nazionale finally granted the last of the
required permits to produce this grand-scale work.
5
W illiam Kentridge’s Triumphs and Laments will open on April 21-22, 2016.
You can help to shape the future of the Eternal City.
TEVERETERNO has always been a 90% volunteer organization,
working with a small, dedicated team in the United States and Italy
to produce major contemporary works for a uniquely public space
in the center of Rome. Since our founding in 2004, the organization
has been fuelled entirely by the inspiration, perseverance, and
generosity of people like you, who represent the single largest
source of support for the ongoing project.
Triumphs and Laments will be a defining work for the City of Rome
– the first, major contemporary public artwork produced for the
historic city in many centuries. We have been hard at work on the
project with Kentridge for some time now: from the ongoing
historical research conducted by our team of scholars (led by Dr.
William Kentridge, preliminary drawing for Triumphs and
Lila Yawn and Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri) to the 2012 Laments, ink on ledger paper. Image courtesy the artist.
projection tests on the Tiber, the 2013 power-washing tests at Ponte
Regina Margherita, the 2014 workshops at MAXXI and the American Academy in Rome, and our 2015 presence at the
Venice Biennale. Friends of TEVERETERNO know that the April 21-22, 2016 premiere of Triumphs and Laments will be a
major triumph.
Please consider making a tax-deductible gift to TEVERETERNO through our US fiscal sponsor, the New York
Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), one of the United States’ most respected not-for-profit arts organizations. Your
support will help us to continue our work for the cultural revival of Rome’s river and bring Triumphs and Laments to life.
The attached materials contain information on the Triumphs and Laments frieze and its opening program, our financial
goals and valued supporters, how the project fits into TEVERETERNO’s larger vision for the Tiber, and complete details
on how you can become part of this extraordinary project.
Be among the first to experience it – join us in Rome next April 2016 for the international premiere of this one of a kind
work, a tribute to the City of Rome. The vision, as always, is optimistic: it begins with a single drop of Tiber River water,
and is founded in hope for rivers around the world. Join us!
For more information about TEVERETERNO or to donate online, please visit us at:
www.tevereterno.it
6
Date:
The New York Foundation for the Arts
Attn: Finance
20 Jay Street, 7th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Re: TEVERETERNO
To Whom It May Concern:
Please find enclosed a contribution for the New York Foundation for the Arts, in the amount of $
.
It is my wish that this contribution be used to support TEVERETERNO, a project that you sponsor.
Notes:
▢ I wish my donation to be anonymous.
▢ I wish my donation to be credited as follows:
Sincerely,
.
Signature
Please complete and return this pledge form to:
The New York Foundation for the Arts
Attn: Finance
20 Jay Street, 7th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Re: TEVERETERNO
Email: [email protected]
Your donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
TEVERETERNO onlus
Piazza di S. Anastasia, 3
00186 – Roma
Italia
289 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10014
USA
[email protected]
www.tevereterno.it
How to Give in the United States
Our work would not be possible without your support.
TEVERETERNO has been entirely fueled by the inspiration, perseverance, and generosity of people like you,
who represent the single largest source of support for the ongoing project.
TEVERETERNO is an international organization that cultivates the revival of Rome’s Tiber River. Tandem
branches in the United States, where it is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts
(NYFA), a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt organization, and in Italy, where it is a legally registered Italian non-profit
association (onlus), partner to produce cultural events that promote the potential of Rome’s river.
Donations made to TEVERETERNO through NYFA, our fiscal sponsor, are tax-deductible in the United
States to the fullest extent of the law.
Should you have any questions, please contact Diane Roehm at [email protected].
Thank you for your gift!
Donating Online by Credit Card
1. Please visit http://bit.ly/OzgBbP to contribute online through TEVERETERNO’s fiscal sponsor, the
New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).
2. Please complete the attached donor letter (required for all donations made by credit card) and
email it to Sarah Corpron, our program associate at the New York Foundation for the Arts,
at [email protected] or mail to:
The New York Foundation for the Arts
Attn: Finance
20 Jay Street, Suite 740
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Re: TEVERETERNO
Donating by Check
1. Make your check out to “The New York Foundation for the Arts.” Please write “TEVERETERNO” in
the memo line.
2. Please complete the attached donor letter (required for all donations over $2500) and email it to
Ms. Corpron at [email protected] or mail with your gift to the address below.
3. Mail your gift to:
The New York Foundation for the Arts
Attn: Finance
20 Jay Street, Suite 740
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Re: TEVERETERNO
TEVERETERNO onlus
Piazza di S. Anastasia, 3
00186 – Roma
Italia
289 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10014
USA
[email protected]
www.tevereterno.it
Donating by Wire Transfer
1. Please contact Sarah Corpron, our program associate at the New York Foundation for the Arts, to
alert her of your planned gift for TEVERETERNO at [email protected] or +1 (212) 366-6900 x221.
2. Please complete the attached donor letter (required for all donations made by wire transfer) and
email it to Ms. Corpron at [email protected] or mail to the address above.
3. After completing steps 1 and 2, above, please initiate your wire transfer to:
Beneficiary Name: New York Foundation for the Arts
Beneficiary Bank: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.
Branch Location: 136 Front Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Bank Routing #: 021000021 (DOMESTIC)
Bank Routing #: 580201028 (INTERNATIONAL)
Bank Account #: 111025338
Swift Code: CHASUS33
Memo / Notes: A gift for TEVERETERNO
Again, should you have any questions, please contact Diane Roehm at [email protected].
Thank you again for your support – people like you really do make all the difference.
2