a travelling photograph exhibition of imperial icons and findings (218 a.C. - 2006 a.C. appr.) by Enrico Fedrigoli
from the project Heliogabalus
with Filip Bilsen, Maarten Goffin, Mauro Milone

The exhibition, divided into the three sections "imperial portraits”, “figures” and “findings”, is a photoarchaeological research, whose aim is the endless reconstruction and reinvention of the Various Icon. "Homo Vario" is an historical character, whom we know everything and nothing about, he is the protagonist of a show (“Heliogabalus” by F&A); he is the object of a multi-faceted and elusive myth; he is the three-fold child of the sun, and he's also a member of a race, a human type, and just because he's all these things and figures at the same time, he is still and relentlessly alone: Sol it (V)arius!

In the legend Varius commissions an artist to paint his portrait, so Roman people can get used to his unconceivable image before his arrival in Rome and his imperial investiture. Just think about this tremendous and sublime commission, and imagine that the artist painted a portrait that is mutable, invisible, impossible yet perfect, different every time, every time more similar to the original face that time dissolved. Of course this image is the portrait, but it's also a finding, from the etymological and archaeological point of view, it's the most contradictory figure, the one that's not meant to be definitely fixed and identified.

7, 8, 9 February 2006
Leuven (Belgium)
STUK Kunstencentrum
imperial costume: Caterina Crepax
ruins: Antonio Rinaldi and Sofia Vannini with the students of the pottery workshop at Museo Carlo Zauli in Faenza (RA) Paolo Castagneris, Suh Chang Won, Kim Eun Ah, Kazu Maekawa and Professor Emidio Galassi

21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 July 2006
Dro (Trento)
Drodesera>Centrale Fies

14 October 2006
Faenza (Ravenna)
Giornata del Contemporaneo
Museo Carlo Zauli
AMACI

1, 2, 3 February 2007
Ravenna
NOBODADDY
Ardis Hall
Teatro delle Albe - Ravenna Teatro