Si Fas Est, Superare Divos

The photographic exhibition Si Fas Est, Superare Divos (superior, if permitted, to the gods), by video artist Yuri Ancarani (Ravenna, 1972), reflects on the apparent impossibility of a conjunction between desire and memory, restoring, through a contemporary gaze, the legendary atmospheres evoked by the scenarios of Hadrian's Villa.

Ancarani's 10 photographs immortalising young cowboys next to busts of Hadrian, exhibited in the Mouseia of Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, are a selection of those taken during the backstage of a video, filmed in the site of Hadrian's Villa, with which Ancarani wishes to pay homage to Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), the Italian composer, musicologist and conductor, who greatly inspired Ennio Morricone and the soundtracks of Sergio Leone's legendary western films.

The grafting of the Italian western, in the summer setting of the Villa, gave rise to a narrative of surprising harmony between the cowboys as protagonists and the temporary and permanent exhibits preserved at the Mouseia, thus establishing the dialogue of the photographic works with the archaeological and landscape heritage of the VILLÆ.

The young cowboys become, in the shots, 'statues next to statues', creating an unexpected and unusual temporal corridor between the contemporary and the remote.

The harmony of the actors animates the archaeological site and in particular the historical environments, such as the Aula with three Exedras, the Peschiera, the Summer Triclinium, Piazza d'oro and the Hospitalia Building, updating the reading, perception and internalisation of the cultural and landscape heritage managed by the Institute through the current production of artistic creativity.

The project is the second chapter of Ancarani's research on Rome, the iconic city, capital of the Roman Empire and seat of Cinecittà: the place that best sheds light on the feeling of nostalgia that Ancarani considers rampant in today's cinematographic panorama and that he represents within a different and unexpected dimension in the shots on show.

Photo: Yuri Ancarani