The City, the Garden, Memory

In 1998, 1999, and 2000, the French Academy in Rome organized a series of contemporary art exhibitions titled “The City, the Garden, Memory.”

Each year of the cycle focuses on one of these three themes. Why this choice? The Villa Medici, which has hosted artists since 1804, is both a place of remembrance and a place of creation. With its palace, houses, and studios, it forms a “city within a city.” Its garden is both self-contained and offers unique views of the city. The three themes are closely intertwined in this unique setting, which has always inspired and fascinated artists.

At the end of this century, the city is a constantly changing world, a true melting pot of cultures. Memory—both individual and collective—is nourished by journeys through space and history. The garden reflects the utopian vision of nature that could be enclosed within the city walls.

These themes, rooted in the reality of the Villa Medici, are presented to the imagination of the artists who reside there as fellows or who have been invited there for the occasion. The variety of the works reflects the extreme diversity of contemporary art.

The year 1999, the last of the millennium, is marked by remembrance. A tarp covers the Villa’s façade, which is set to be restored in the year 2000, while in the garden, the remains of Emperor Honorius’s palace were explored and unearthed for several months by archaeologists from the École Française de Rome.

The exhibition takes place in the rooms and gardens of the Villa Medici. During the exhibition, the French Academy in Rome, in collaboration with the RomaEuropa Festival, is organizing concerts of contemporary music, theater and dance performances, as well as an evening dedicated to poetry in its gardens.

The exhibition allows visitors to embark on a journey through one of Rome’s most beautiful sites, experiencing it through their own eyes or through the eyes of today’s artists.

The exhibition curators are Laurence Bossé, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Dora Stiefelmeier and Mario Pieroni of Zerynthia serve as artistic advisors to the French Academy in Rome.
Christine Ferry is the exhibition’s general coordinator.

Works by Fabrice Hybert (France), Daniel Buren (France), Lucius Burckhardt (Switzerland), Annette Messager (France), Peter Fischli and David Weiss (Switzerland), Stalker (Italy), Bruna Esposito (Italy), Michelangelo Pistoletto (Italy), Eva Marisaldi (Italy), Cesare Viel (Italy), Cai Guo Qiang (China), Janet Cardiff (Canada), Kay Hassan (South Africa), Lois Weinberger (Austria), Olafur Eliasson (Iceland), Toyo Ito (Japan), Xavier Veilhan (France).

Featured Residents: Philippe Fangeaux, Fréderic Lefever, Anne Mie Depuydt

 

Exhibitions:

The City
, May 29–August 30, 1998

“Memory
” May 28 – September 5, 1999

”
‘s Garden” June 21 – September 24, 2000

 

Image:
Souvenir photo: “Cabane éclatée à l’obélisque,” June 2000, site-specific work, 600 x 1200 x 1200 cm, from “La ville / Le jardin / Memory,” Villa Medici, French Academy, Rome, Italy. © Daniel Buren/ADAGP, Paris. Detail. Photo: Claudio Abate