Nearly 40 years after his death the question of who Pasolini really was is being posed anew. The exhibition is organized according to chronological, artistic and toponymic aspects. With the aid of multimedia the topoi of art, literature, architecture, film and life are brought together: six chronological sections corresponding to the six phases of Pasolini's life and work.
The “PASOLINI ROMA” exhibition deals with the Italian writer and
film-maker Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) in the context of his
relationship with Rome. Pasolini in Rome conjures up visions of poetry,
politics, a zest for big-city living, sex, friendship and cinema.
Pier Paolo Pasolini was one of the most outstanding and
ambivalent personalities on the European intellectual scene of the post-
war period. As a lyricist in his native Friulian, as the author of novels,
essays and columns on cultural and political issues, as a director of
controversial films, and also as a painter and graphic artist, he sought to
explore timeless, archaic themes: the fate of man, rural life, religion,
sexuality, death. In doing so he always avoided commonly accepted
standards and created images of extraordinary clarity and starkness, thus
becoming the most provocative figure in Italian society.
As a result of his media presence in the last years of his life and
certainly since his violent death Pasolini has become an icon of
Postmodernism. Autobiography and self-promotion, while certainly not
the only elements in his works, are nevertheless present as important
themes, revolving like satellites around their author’s ego, his inner
contradictions and his place in a changing world. In the last analysis it
was Pasolini himself who with a flood of pretexts, self-commentaries and
media happenings blurred the distinctions between life and work.
Nearly 40 years after his death the question of who Pasolini
really was is being posed anew. To answer it we have to look at the “whole”
Pasolini, that is to say, the life and the work, the wealth of styles and the
diversity of media, and also at the social and political clairvoyance and the
excessive provocation of this highly complex artist, who has recently been
rediscovered by a younger generation who have seen the relevance of his
views on the consumer society in the changed circumstances of
globalization.
The exhibition is organized according to chronological, artistic and
toponymic aspects. With the aid of multimedia the topoi of art, literature,
architecture, film and life are brought together. Pasolini is considered to
have been Rome’s most significant post-war artist. His ideas, writings and
films have had a profound influence on younger colleagues and given
artistic expression to important periods of Italian history.
The show consists of six chronological sections corresponding to
the six phases of Pasolini’s life and work. It begins with his arrival in Rome
on 28 January 1950 and ends on 2 November 1975, when his lifeless body
was discovered in the vicinity of Ostia.
For Pasolini Rome was not just a background and location. Rome
had a positively physical, sensuous and passionate existence. For the artist
Rome was like one long love story with all its disappointments, mixed
feelings of love and hatred, and alternating phases of attraction, rejection
and estrangement. For Pasolini the analyst of the development of Italian
society Rome was his main observation platform, an eternal field of study,
of thought and of struggle. The changes in the city shaped his analysis of
the changes in Italy and the Italians in the 1960s and 1970s.
There is a pre-Pasolini Rome and a post-Pasolini Rome. His articles
and films created a new imagery for the city of Rome. Pasolini was not
content to use the city as the scene of his novels and films; what he
managed to do was “recreate” Rome using the means of literature and
film. Like some grand creator he invented a new myth of the polis and the
Vatican City, their districts and inhabitants.
As a film-maker Pasolini is best known for “Accattone” (1961),
“Mamma Roma” (1962), “The Gospel According to Matthew” (1964) and
“Theorem” (1968). In 1969 he filmed “Medea” after Euripides with Maria
Callas. “The Decameron” was shown at the 1970 Berlinale. As a writer he
achieved notoriety for his novels "Ragazzi di vita" (1955) and "Una vita
violenta" (1959) and later distinguished himself as an essayist and lyricist.
The “PASOLINI ROMA” exhibition is a joint project of Centre of
Contemporary Culture of Barcelona – CCCB, Cinémathèque française
Paris, Azienda Palaexpo–Palazzo delle Esposizioni Rome, and Martin-
Gropius-Bau Berlin. “PASOLINI ROMA” was selected and financed as a
project by the European Commission in order to pay tribute to the
European, transnational and topical character of Pasolini’s work and of
the project itself.
Organizers Berliner Festspiele in association with the CCCB - Centre de Cultura
Contemporània de Barcelona, Cinémathèque française in Paris and Azienda
Speciale Palaexpo - Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome with the kind support of the
Cultural Programme of the European Union. As part of the European Month of
Photography Berlin. Promoted by the Capital Cultural Fund Berlin.
Partners
Italian Institute of Culture Berlin, Wall, BTM-Visit Berlin, Arsenal, Yorck, KaDeWe,
ALEXA, Dussmann, DB. Der Schöne Tag, Bouvet Ladubay
Media partners
Der Tagesspiegel, zitty, Exberliner,
kulturradio
Catalogue
Published by Prestel Verlag
Price in the Martin-Gropius-Bau: 29€
Price in the bookshop: 39,95€
ISBN 978-3-7913-5399-9
www.pasoliniroma.com, blog.pasoliniroma.com
Image:
Pier Paolo Pasolini and Ninetto Davoli. Archivio Pier Paolo Pasolini, bibliotheca della cineteca del comune di Bologna © All Rights Reserved
Public Relations
Head: Dr. Susanne Rockweiler
Press: Christiane Zippel
T +49 30 254 86 – 236, F +49 30 254 86 – 235
presse@gropiusbau.de
Organisation: Ellen Clemens
T +49 30 254 86 – 123, F +49 30 254 86 – 107
organisation@gropiusbau.de
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin
Opening times Wednesday to Monday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., closed Tue, open on public
holidays, closed on 24.12. and 31.12.2014
Admission fees
€ 10 / reduced rate € 7, groups (of five or more persons) € 7 per person
Admission free for those of 16 or under
Combination tickets at favourable rates available at the cash desk
Guided tours
Public guided tours
Sundays, 3 p.m. (without booking)
€ 3 plus € 7 admission per person
Booked guided tours
For groups: Guided tours in German (60 min.)
Adults: € 60 plus € 7 admission per person
School classes: € 45 plus € 5 admission per person, admission free for those of 16
or under
For guided tours in other languages an additional fee of € 10 will be charged.
Lunchtime guided tours: Wednesdays 1 p.m.
1.10., 5.11.,3.12.2014