Patrick Düblin

In 1998, the gardens of the Villa Medici in Rome were opened to the public for the first time. On this occasion, the exhibition La ville, le jardin, la mémoire was organized. The aim of the exhibition was to link the villa with the city. To this end, Lucius and Annemarie Burckhardt acted as travel consultants in the “Villa Medici Travel Agency”, where they offered ten curated walks. Most were deliberately non-touristic in character, avoiding Rome’s monuments.

In developing their tours, the two “strollologists” were assisted by the Italian artists’ collective Stalker, which had already made a name for itself by re-evaluating neglected urban areas, including a four-day tour of the outskirts of Rome in 1995. Their official contribution to the exhibition, however, was not a walk, but a path designed to both enhance and critique the tourist experience of Rome’s monuments. Resembling a Tibetan rope bridge, the Alberovia crossed the gardens from wall to wall and was intended to extend across the centro storico, challenging the commodification of tourist sites through playful-experimental uses.

The presentation “Rom abseits von ausgetretenen Pfaden. Minimale Interventionen mit maximaler Wirkung” examines these and similar actions, contextualizing them within the history of Rome’s urban development and the recurring phenomenon of walking off the beaten path.

19 February, 18:00, at the University Library of Basel.
On the occasion of the exhibition „sehend denken. 100 Jahre Lucius + Annemarie Burckhardt“.