In the summer of 2011 Outset Germany_Switzerland supported a site-specific project, conceived by British artist Simon Starling. Following a visit to Malta in January, an international group of young artists studying at the Städelschule, Frankfurt with the British artist Simon Starling, have developed a collaborative project with the roving arts organisation Malta Contemporary Arts.
When In Rome was developed in relation to the complexity of Malta’s history, to it’s life as a tourist destination, to it’s current role as a set for a diverse range of film productions and further still, as a staging post for political and military responses to conflict ridden countries in neighbouring North Africa. Realised in Valletta, the world’s smallest capital city, When In Rome, took the form of a 3-day-long series of simultaneously performed actions that served to map the cities streets in different ways. Each of these actions was a re-enactment of a work made by another artist in a specific situation somewhere in the world over the last 40 years. When performed simultaneously, overlaid within the confines of Valletta’s city walls, these re-enactments added to this already complex place, creating a cacophonic site - a layered and complex space within which to consider a contemporary understanding of what might constitute the very notion of a place.
When in Rome? - A Polyphonic Site-Intervention in the World's Smallest Capital City, involved the following artists:
Khaled Barakeh, Benedikte Bjerre, Elisa Caldana, Oscar Carlson, Ann Cathrin November Høibo, Rasmus Søndergaard, Johannsen, Vytautas Jurevicius, Patrick Keaveny, Aki Nagasaka, Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi, Filippa-Linn Pettersson, Beto Shawafaty, John Skoog, Simon Starling, Franziska von Stenglin, Jol Thomson
ON VIEW: 14th - 16th June 2011
When in Rome Symposium - Reconsidering Site Specificity: 3rd November 2011
