June 2007 Archives

From the Guardian:

"It is a buzz that mayor Walter Veltroni wants back, prompting him to hand over the keys to a second Roman temple, the Ara Pacis, originally built to honour the conquest of France by Augustus. Valentino will host a 300-dress exhibition of his best works in the temple."

Following the news for the Ara Pacis museum as closely as we do here, it seems obvious that the new museum was really pushed by Veltroni specifically for these kinds of events. No wonder the altar had spaces designed for exhibitions and a theater. A lot people - and many Italians obviously - may not like Meier's work on a personal level (which is really not much of an argument anyway) - but he can't be blamed for shoe-horning in elements that probably would have been left out if the building wasn't intended to serve several purposes from the beginning.

The Ara Pacis museum is getting a lot of duty as an event space:

"As for the exhibition, Valentino a Roma: 45 Years of Style is the retrospective that, via around 300 garments and rare archive material, will celebrate Valentino's 45 years of creativity, with a spectacular staging in the Ara Pacis Museum, which was recently renovated and extended by architect Richard Meier. The exhibition, which will run from July 6 to October 28 and is being curated by Patrick Kinmonth and Antonio Monfreda, is developed around the Ara Pacis and in all the rooms of the museum. The display will create a chronological retrospective, which is visible to passers-by outside the museum, strengthening the link that connects Valentino to Rome and Rome to Valentino. The complementary exhibition catalogue, published by Taschen, will include a detailed philological analysis of the garments and materials on display, alongside critical texts written for the occasion by the curators, by the Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni, and by some of the most eminent figures of the worlds of journalism and fashion criticism."

A couple of nice new apparently early morning photos of the Ara Pacis Museum from a blog called "Rome Photo". In the first there appears to be some new sort of standing sign at the top of the steps - wonder if this is permanent? The second one is an interesting shot from the river side - you can see the Ara Pacis within and what looks like an old woman mopping the floor!