ROME 312
Experience of the Eternal City
Picture Gallery- Project Information
ROME 312
Experience the Eternal City
ROME 312 shows a breathtaking panorama of the glorious capital of the Roman Empire as it looked in 312 AD and makes the ancient metropolis walkable in a hyper-realistic exhibition space. Experience the triumphant entry of Emperor Constantine into the city of millions on the Tiber at a turning point in human history.
In Asisi's Panorama of Late Antiquity, your gaze sweeps far beyond the metropolis as if you were standing on Capitol Hill in Rome: you see a pulsating metropolis with architectural marvels whose ruins still shape the image of modern Rome, but in the panorama are seamlessly embedded in the city's vibrant everyday life.
With ROME 312, Yadegar Asisi takes up an important turning point in the history of mankind: Legend has it that on the eve of his battle against Maxentius in 312, Constantine saw a vision of a cross that heralded his imminent victory. This event was a catalyst for the spread of Christianity, which eventually became the state religion in 380 AD.
"For me, ROME 312 is about the question of power and religion, about the interpretation of the past."
Yadegar Asisi
Making Of
Over the past 20 years, Yadegar Asisi has created numerous panoramas, but his gigantic circular image of ancient Rome occupies a special place in his oeuvre: it is Asisi's first panorama, a project that, among other things, led him to make this extraordinary medium his preferred form of expression.
The work was inspired by a historical panorama by Joseph Bühlmann and Alexander von Wagner, which was exhibited in Munich at the end of the 19th century. What began as a digital reconstruction of the Bühlmann-Wagner work for the Bonn exhibition "Sehsucht" in 1993 became a constant in his work and a continuous examination of human society in its reinterpretation as a giant circular image in the Panometer Leipzig and other panorama locations.
Past exhibition locations of ROME 312
PANOMETER LEIPZIG
2005 – 2009
PANOMETER DRESDEN
2011 – 2012
GASOMETER PFORZHEIM
2014 – 2018
PANORAMA XXL
2014/2015, 2018/2019 in Rouen (F)
Panorama music and soundscape by Eric Babak
From the pilot project EVEREST onwards, Yadegar Asisi is collaborating with the well-known composer and pianist Eric Babak. In close collaboration between the two artists, the impressive soundscape of the panoramas is harmonized directly in the exhibition space with the lighting patterns to create an atmospheric overall installation. Depending on the project, the productions use, among other things, large orchestras and choirs, but also minimalist synthesizer sounds in combination with everyday noises to make the special atmosphere of the themes audible and tangible in the constant change of panorama sequences.