In occasion of the 2011 International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, Sunday 30 January marks the return to the Synagogue in Ostia Antica of the biannual event Arte in memoria, the international contemporary art exhibition curated by Adachiara Zevi and organized by the Fondazione VOLUME!. The exhibition, now in its sixth edition, is promoted by: Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma - Sede di Ostia; Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione generale per il paesaggio, le belle arti, l'architettura e l'arte contemporanee; Assessorato alle Politiche Culturali della Provincia di Roma and Municipio Roma XIII. The exhibition is under the patronage of the Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane and supported by the Ambasciata della Repubblica Federale di Germania in Italia. The artists invited to intervene this year are: Jochen Gerz, Richard Long, Liliana Moro and Giuseppe Penone. As with the previous editions, the works are realized specifically for the Synagogue in Ostia Antica, one of the oldest archaeological testimonials to Jewish Diaspora (I century A.D.). The idea behind the initiative is rooted in the history of the Synagogue of Stommeln in the province of Cologne that, after surviving Nazi rule, each year since 1990 hosts an artist invited to create an original site-specific work. Arte in memoria participates in the International Day of Commemoration, instituted by the European Parliament to mark the date of the opening of the gates in Auschwitz, convinced that a project for memory must not stop at the merely symbolic and commemorative, but identify a continuity through time, regularly inviting different artists to confront such a drastically contemporary theme and a site of such historical, artistic and symbolic importance. The critical idea behind the project considers our culture, obsessed by memory though characterized by the destructive dynamics of oblivion. In order that the memory of tragedies, past and present, is not simply resolved in commemorative acts and one-day ritual discussions, Arte in memoria invites the artistic community to effect a transformation of a religious site into a site of culture, re-populating it with visions inspired by history though rooted in the present day. The presentation of the catalogue for Arte in memoria 6 will coincide with the conclusion of the exhibition. Bilingual and graphically similar to it predecessors, it features an essay by the curator and images of the works presented inside the Synagogue from 30 January to 3 April 2011. In memory of the initiative, and as a headway towards a possible collection of works of contemporary art inside an archaeological site, upon conclusion of the 2002 exhibition two works were donated by the artists Sol LeWitt and Gal Weinstein, followed in 2005 by the donation of the work by the Portuguese artist Pedro Cabrita Reis. These pieces, part of a permanent dialogue with the ruins, are visible from the road that connects the Excavations in Ostia Antica with the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino. FACT SHEET Exhibition: Arte in memoria
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Location: Synagogue in Ostia Antica
Organization: Fondazione VOLUME!
Curator: Adachiara Zevi
Architectural Direction and Coordination: AnomiaStudio Architetture
Exhibition Design: Sauro Radicchi
Graphic Design: Giovanni D’Ambrosio, Paolo La Farina
Inauguration: Sunday 30 January 2011 at 11:00 a.m.
Exhibition Duration: 30 January - 3 April 2011
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (visitors must leave the Excavations by 5:00 p.m.). Closed on Mondays.
Tickets: full price € 6.50; reduced price € 3.25 (entrance to the exhibition is included in the cost of the ticket to visit the archaeological excavations)
Directions:
Metro: Urban rail line from the Porta San Paolo station, trains leave every 15 minutes (20 minute travel time), to the Ostia Antica station.
By car: Via del Mare (Exit n. 28 from the GRA); Via Cristoforo Colombo to Castel Fusano, the site of the turn off for Ostia Antica.
Parking: monitored pay parking, outside the archaeological area, near the ticket office.
Information: Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma, Sede di Ostia
tel. +39 06 56358099
Servizio di Comunicazione Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma Sede di Ostia: Sandra Terranova +39 06 56358003; sandra.terranova@beniculturali.it
Press Office:
Novella Mirri and Maria Bonmassar, tel. +39 06 32652596; ufficiostampa@novellamirri.it
Fondazione VOLUME!:
Alessia Colasanti, mob. +39 349 3774099, ufficiostampa@fondazionevolume.com
Rome, January 2011