Amor

Everyone carries their own image of Rome, even those who have never seen or experienced the city, and each one contains a personal story, a memory, a vision. Mine also has a face. That of my mother Teresa who went to the Milvio bridge on 12 July 1998 and threw herself into the Tiber. The threads of the city broke inside me and I was left stunned and immobile. Now, many years later, I set off again. I have everything I need: maps, books, film archives, photographs, engravings, and personal items. Inspired by the legends of Rhea Silvia and Romulus and Remus, by the bravery of Cloelia who fled to Rome and crossed the Tiber, by the river traffic and by the recurring flooding, I trace routes, forge bonds and dream worlds. “I reconstruct” Rome. Meanwhile, Teresa is travelling through space to Planet Amor which has a city surrounded by water that resembles Rome – but it is not Rome and people know to look after each other. There, my mother passes through a gate similar to that in Piazza del Popolo and into a place surrounded by columns that looks like St Peter’s. Then she finds herself in front of a castle that resembles Castel Sant'Angelo. Finally, she is into a big ship that looks like Tiber Island. The Rome of the river and water is tangled with those of the labyrinths of the mind, of the deep bonds woven by art and of that which never dies: joy, fear, discovery, sorrow, and the need for change. AMOR is a fantasy story of a private and universal, physical and mental Rome: time chases more time and the images and sounds weave the threads of History and Legend.