At the Baths of Diocletian The Forms of Time, unprecedented dialogue between photography and archaeology

The Baths of Diocletian in Rome host until July 31, 2022 the exhibition The Forms of Time, curated by Alessandro Dandini de Sylva. Photographs by Fabio Barile and Domingo Milella will be in an unprecedented dialogue with the archaeological spaces. The title of the exhibition is taken from George Kubler ’s book The Shape of Time (1972), which states that “knowing the past is as amazing an undertaking as knowing the stars.”

The exhibition is intended to be an evolution of the dialogue between the two artists, on this occasion dedicated to the relationship between archaeology of landscape and archaeology of language: the two artists and the curator have imagined the exhibition itinerary as a conversation between images and archaeological space, for an archaic return to reflection and for a profound research on photography and on the very act of looking.

“The works of Fabio Barile and Domingo Milella are photographs that reflect Time,” said the curator. “Barile’s images show forms in perpetual evolution, from the deep time of the world and geology, while Milella’s are rooted in the stone of the archaic, of the primitive in the present in a single glance. ”The discourse on the ancient is evoked by the dialogue between the images in the exhibition: from the Pyramids of Giza to the Tomb of King Midas in Phrygia, from the Campo Imperatore plateau to the Gorropu Gorge in Supramonte. Through the dialogue between the two artists, the exhibition aims to bring together silent geologies and talking stones by searching for a common archaeology."

In addition to the photographic works, the exhibition presents a selection of archaeological artifacts, selected with the director of the National Roman Museum Stéphane Verger, with the aim of creating unexpected visual and semantic juxtapositions between the photographs and the museum’s Great Halls.

"With the exhibition The Forms of Time, the National Roman Museum’s Archaeology and Photography project continues,“ explains the director of the National Roman Museum. ”The project was created to promote archaeological heritage through the universal language of photography. The choice to exhibit works preserved in the museum’s deposits alongside the images of photographers Fabio Barile and Domingo Milella allows us to highlight the extent of the relationship that exists between the museum and its contemporary content and creativity. Moreover, the photographic exhibition finds in the premises of the Baths of Diocletian the ideal space for a visual narrative dedicated to the passage of time, and is in constant dialogue with the imposing structures of the Baths’ halls and exhibits."

The works of the two artists are presented in an installation designed to foster a dialogue with the archaeological space.

The exhibition will also be a room for reflection where, during the exhibition period, there will be a meeting with writers and scholars of archaeology and a workshop for children in collaboration with the Cartastraccia association.

The Forms of Time at the Baths of Diocletian is a production of Isthmus in collaboration with Camilla Grimaldi and Greta Voeller.

For more info: www.museonazionaleromano.beniculturali.it

Photo by Eleonora Cerri Pecorella

At the Baths of Diocletian The Forms of Time, unprecedented dialogue between photography and archaeology

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