Glamour, Sex And Politics—Artist Francesco Vezzoli Reimagines Ancient Rome

“I’m trying to highlight the sexuality of ancient Rome as a celebration of Italy’s cultural history” says Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli, who in the exhibition VITA DULCIS asks visitors to reconsider ancient Rome as a mix of sex, politics and gender fluidity. “For me, this is incredibly important because it’s a fact that Rome was a sexually charged place. But at the moment, some parts of our culture are in a weird form of retroactive censorship, they want to hide it.”

On show at the Palazzo Esposizioni and brought to Rome in collaboration with Prada, the exhibition features Vezzoli’s controversial re-workings of antiquities, including busts, nudes and feet, along with his cult favourite piece, a 2017 fictionalized trailer for Gore Vidal’s 1979 film Caligula. Mentored by Gore Vidal, the film starred Courtney Love, Helen Mirren and Milla Jovovich amongst others, and explores the “sexuality of Ancient Rome.” As he celebrates the opening of VITA DULCIS, Vezzoli talks politics, sex and antiquities, and what it was like working with Courtney Love.

ADVERTISEMENT

When you were first approached by the Palazzo Esposizioni to have an exhibition in their space you were skeptical, why?

Initially I said no, unless they would let me scour all their archives. I didn’t think they would agree to that, but they did, and so my work began. I wanted to explore what I see as the negative aura around the forgotten beauty of antiquities in storage. In Italy, we have an enormous cultural heritage, one that should be presented in institutions and be taken very seriously. But there is this other side to the story of Roman antiquities that I wanted to bring to life, one which shows sexuality and politics. I think that something people overlook is that ancient Rome was a very sexually charged place.

ADVERTISEMENT

How have you explored that in ancient sculptures, preserved for their importance not for re-working by artists?

Well, I wanted to add some glamor and a sense of campiness to the antiquities in the show. We talk about it a little as a culture in Italy, but we don’t really explore that the emperor of the Roman empire had a gay relationship with a man – that’s the story of Hadrian. And it wasn’t uncommon then, so I’ve purposely made a very sedate looking Roman bust into a camp artifact.

ADVERTISEMENT

Works like Ai tuoi piedi (Pedicure), where you paint nail polish onto sculptures, have been criticized as lacking in respect of the legacy of ancient Roman artifacts. How do you feel about that view?

I’m trying to highlight the sexuality of ancient Rome as a celebration of Italy’s cultural history. For me, this is incredibly important because it’s a fact that Rome was a sexually charged place. And at the moment, some parts of our culture are in a weird form of retroactive censorship, they want to hide it. In my view, that speaks to the conservative culture in Europe and in Rome in terms of religion. That people’s reaction to these works might be that they’re controversial, in my view, is an odd reaction – because sexuality has always been part of Rome.

ADVERTISEMENT

Rome is establishing its reputation as a contemporary art capital, but it’s been a slow process. What do you think is holding the city back?

I think that Rome has enormous potential, and Rome has proven for thousands of years this incessant and endless capability of creating mythologies and making art. Now, it’s about creating some new forms of mythology.

Before you started working in antiquities and ruins, you were working with celebrities on fashion stills and films. One of which is a recreation of Caligula by Gore Vidal, which you showed at the Venice Art Biennale in 2017 — it starred Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett, Gore Vidal and Courtney Love, amongst others. What was it like working with Gore Vidal?

Of all the people I’ve met and worked with, Gore is definitely number one on my list. He was a true intellectual, whether it was history of politics, history of cinema, history of sexuality, history of literature – Gore was the number one professor. He was a great fiction writer, columnist, political figure, I would call him Cicero, which he found horrifying – but he was a truly iconic figure.

ADVERTISEMENT

What did you learn from him?

Well, I learned about the importance of being multidisciplinary, which is a very hard task. But the more you know about at least two or three different fields, and the more you are able to put these things on a parallel plane, you never know what might come next. He taught me that you should never try to master just one discipline and that you must always be in the mindset of exploration.

For example, you must read about politics, and immediately your artistic perspective will change, you get the full picture of what Rome could have been in the Baroque period. To be multi-disciplinary is a very complicated task, because it demands a lot of study, but it can give you such a crucial key to understanding the world.

ADVERTISEMENT

What was it like working with Courtney Love, and why did you cast her?

It was a very complicated time in Courtney’s life when we worked together. And working with Courtney was, you know, getting really near to one of the great mythologies of the past century. When I think of all these great people in my life, I feel incredibly lucky. To be honest, I’ve used my profession to have an extremely exciting life. And I think that it goes back to my childhood, whenever people would ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would say I wanted to be a journalist. And I think in the end, and I’m not schmoozing you, but my greatest mentor was a journalist in New York – and of course Gore. For me, the greatest journalists are the ones that share their access to inspire. I suppose with my Caligula short, that was my aim, to bring to the public an incredible view of glamor and life.