Introduction

In June 2016 Ugo Rondinone presented a two-part exhibition entitled giorni d’oro + notti d’argento (golden days + silver nights) at two historic locations in Rome. The two environmental installations were conceived as two cycles, giorni d’oro and notti d’argento, and transformed each space into a visual and conceptual experience.

At the Mercati di Traiano, the Imperial markets built for Emperor Trajan and dating to around 100-110 AD, Rondinone placed monumental casts of equally ancient olive trees in a semi-circular arrangement along the market’s exedra (market niches). Made from aluminum coated with white enamel, the casts of existing trees, its gnarled forms shaped by centuries of wind exposure, contrast dramatically against the warm brick colors of the markets. For Rondinone, the trees represent an accumulation of time, a reservoir of life force, just as the market’s ancient ruins bear witness to centuries of human history.

Pavilion 9B of the MACRO Testaccio, a former abattoir, houses the second part of giorni d’oro + notti d’argento, and gathered together the large installation Vocabulary of Solitude, exhibited in Spring 2016 at the Museum Boijmans in Rotterdam. In contrast to the monochromatic monumental trees at the Mercati di Traiano, the environment presented in the former slaughterhouse’s industrial architecture is characterized by bold colors. Amid individually colored walls, stained-glass clocks, sculptures of windows, and clown’s shoes, 45 clowns are set in different postures. Each represents an activity of everyday life according to a list the artist assembled: be. breathe. sleep. dream. wake. rise. sit. hear. look. think. stand. walk. pee. shower. dress. drink. fart. shit. read. laugh. cook. smell. taste. eat. clean. write. daydream. remember. cry. nap. touch. feel. moan. enjoy. float. love. hope. wish. sing. dance. fall. curse. yawn. undress. lie.

In a collaboration between the artist and the museum’s Education Department, the exhibition at the MACRO Testaccio is accompanied by hundreds of drawings of rainbows executed by students of Roman schools.