Two leading contemporary artists create Pompeii's first sticker collection

A leading contemporary art duo creates a collection of stickers for the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. We are talking about Allora & Calzadilla, who started with a question: what if Pompeii became part of our daily conversations by embracing today’s digital episteme? Can we refer to Pompeian heritage to convey timeless feelings and ideas? This is what the two artists asked themselves as they ventured to compile a visual glossary based on Pompeii’s rich and complex iconography. The two artists created Pompeii Archaeological Park’s first collection of mobile stickers, downloadable for free on IOS and Android and launched on pompeiicommitment.org to crown theirPompeii Commitment. Archaeological Matters - Digital Fellowship. The collection includes 50 mobile stickers that will be progressively unveiled to the public during two online publications, one on September 12, 2024, and the other one month later, on October 12, 2024, on the occasion of the 20th Edition of the Day of the Contemporary, promoted by AMACI.

In today’s visual digital landscape, emoji and mobile stickers have become an integral part of the way we express ourselves and interact, constituting a universal language that transcends cultural and language barriers. Stickers in particular present a unique potential because of their bottom-up development, in which both the visual references employed and the meanings to be conveyed can be self-determined.

Allora & Calzadilla have created a collection of 50 mobile stickers through a graphic design that combines images of carefully selected Pompeian frescoes and artifacts with words that convey complex notions such as loneliness, individual love, pleasure, loyalty or distrust, to name a few. As is often the case in their practice, Allora & Calzadilla used poetic association techniques, in part thanks to the participation of Pompeii Archaeological Park officials - such as archaeologist Anna Civale or esteemed guide Mattia Buondonno - who responded to a list of about 200 words. The artists favored nuanced words, often pairing them with images that can allude to multiple interpretations and prompt critical engagement through witty associations. Thus the fresco an evergreen fern (Phyllitis Scolopendrium) from the Orchard House is associated with the word growth, or a snake moving toward an egg from one of the Villas of Gragnano in Castellammare di Stabia refers to defeat. Some stickers employ Pompeian iconography linked to mythology, embracing the timelessness of mythopoiesis. This is the case, for example, with the fresco of the metamorphosis of Cyparissus from the House of the Vettii, which the artists chose to associate with pain.

Overall, the sticker collection delves into the visual culture of a historical time and place, uncovering its meanings; at the same time, it approaches Pompeian heritage as alive and in transformation along with contemporary cultural paradigms. The stickers arise from a study of the past, combined with interpretations related to our contemporaneity. It will be the audience that will activate further meanings through their use, thus generating future interactions between past and present in everyday communication. Allora & Calzadilla’s Digital Fellowship is not only an investigation of the enduring power of images, but an actualization of the dynamism of archaeology, which is alive and ever-changing.

Since 2022, theDigital Fellowship program has allowed artists and artists, curators and curators, and researchers to conduct extended research over a period of several months-both remotely and in situ-focusing on aspects related to both the history and symbologies, narratives, and possible meanings of the Pompeian site. Digital Fellowships promote artistic and curatorial research within the unique, layered, trans-temporal and multi-species context of Pompeii and are part of Pompeii Commitment. Archaeological Subjects.

Jennifer Allora (1974, Philadelphia, USA) and Guillermo Calzadilla (1971, Havana, Cuba) have developed an experimental and innovative practice that addresses the intersections of history, ecology and geopolitics using a multiplicity of artistic media including performance, sculpture, sound, video, photography and painting. Since the beginning of their collaboration in 1995, Allora & Calzadilla have presented solo exhibitions in some of the world’s leading museums including: Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art Porto, Porto (2023); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2022); The Menil Collection, Houston (2020); Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2019); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2019); MAXXI, Rome (2018); Dia Art Foundation, New York (2015); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010); Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli-Turin (2008); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2008); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2008); and Serpentine Gallery, London (2007), to name a few. In 2011, they represented the United States at the 54th Venice Biennale with their ambitious project, Glória - a performative critique of the overlapping narratives and symbols in American political, cultural and economic nationalism. Allora & Calzadilla live and work in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Two leading contemporary artists create Pompeii's first sticker collection

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