DAY 12 - June 11th

Waking up in a new city, a new room, a new language, new people, and a new timezone nothing new that its 2pm and I am just rubbing the crust out of my eyelids. Every time I wake up at an unreasonable hour having slept through prime daylight hours of seeing a beautiful new place I hear my mother sigh with discontent thousands of miles away. Speaking of discontent, boy oh boy are there some interesting vibes around Rome right now. About a month ago Rome elected its latest Major (or city mayor) and this time around it was quite a scandal. A quote from press:

Rome's newly elected right-wing mayor, former neo-fascist Gianni Alemanno, will probably not be best pleased by the French Président's nomination, last week, of an openly gay man at the head of the prestigious French Academy in Rome. "I respect homosexual people, I know a few and I am not saying this out of discrimination but I fear that Gay Pride is something else, an act of sexual exhibition, and I am opposed to all form of exhibition, homosexual or heterosexual," said Alemanno, adding that the city would make sure the event did not offend anybody.

The elected official has placed an interesting challenge for progress in the city of ancients. Talking to Francesco last night, the promoter of PhagOff Rome (the reason I come to this great city this week) and dj WARBEAR, he filled me in on all of the mishigas that has surrounded the scandal of a fascist Major. Last year Gay Pride in Roma was celebrated in protest in the same place as the horrid "heterosexual pride" festival known as Family Day. This year they wanted the festival to follow suit to keep the protest against Catholic indecency alive. Alas, the new fascist major made it his first duty to sign that pride not be allowed to celebrate in the same place.

Article on Gianni

Today I went to MACRO, the Museum of Contemparay Art in Roma. It was tucked away in what looks like a more posh area of town. The lobby had this massive "mission style" rotating mobile of fabric socks filled with spices.

Just 1 Euro (about $2) entrance (U.S. Art Museums GET A CLUE) I explored the insides of the museum whose architecture was very modern with lots of metal stairwells and glass walls. Not totally impressed by the one exhibit I could find, I took a chance and walked to the top level. The entrance to the top level had black curtains over the doorways and I was not sure whether to walk in or not. Once inside I realized how much taking that chance paid off! I will try to let the pictures speak for themselves but let me tell you that the entire exhibition was pitch black and spanned the entire roof the museum. There was a disclaimer about the exhibit before entering:

There were two sides to the exhibit connected by a metal ramp with an attendant and a flashlight to help visitors not kill themselves in the dark. On either side the set up of bodies on the floor, unnerving sexually suggestive sculptures, dual video installation, and fully installed bathroom-bedroom-and prison stall. The way it is set up, by the time you get to the other side, you are not even sure if you crossed a bridge or if you are just where you started. BRILLIANT! My heart was racing the entire time inside from fear and excitement. So this is Roma? Not afraid to have unsafe and nightmare worthy (not to mention expensive) art in its museums. How fitting this installation was after hearing about the political state of the city.

The dead bodies in bags on the ground were lit by long black fabric shade so that the only
light that was emitted hit the figures in a way that it did not reveal the lacking body parts etc.

This room along with the bathroom and bedroom had heavy doors that only let light out in a number of ways to cue visitors to reveal their existence. This prison room had a window that created a shaft of light. Once again there were two of each room installed in either side of the exhibit that look EXACTLY the same (WICKED!).

This body had a huge uncut erection at the time of death. I kinda wanted to touch it. DON'T TOUCH THE ART!

Gay visibility in Roma is not what you would think out of a metropolitan city. The only gay flag I saw was on this whole trip was the one on the oldest bar on this street near the Colosseum. Warbear was telling me that this street is going to be the Castro of Rome in 10 years. The bar with the gay flag started to become increasingly popular and so the bars next to it (which were not gay at all) decided to turn into fag bars and sell cheaper drinks. The cycle continues and this street is basically the place to go be and be seen all week. Other then gay discotheques that are scattered throughout Roma, this street represents a very important public image for queers in the city. There has been a resurgence of gay bashing in the city due to the new Major and his fascist roots. Nazi/Fascist groups have been given a sense of entitlement to harass queers given the new political state of the town. I could very much appreciate the symbolism of these out queers drinking and cruising with the Colosseum looming about a block away.

(c) Homochic 2008