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02/06/2005: "The Big Art Hunt"
Ever since writing “Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies” (2002), I have wondered what happened to Robert Smithson’s “Asphalt Run Down” (1969), for which a truck dumped molten asphalt over a cliff into a quarry near Rome, Italy. Artist Nancy Holt, his widow, gratiously faxed me his 1969 map. Using this invaluable treasure map, Italian artist Patrizia Giambi and I tracked down this earthwork, which now stands as the first ecovention. Two Sundays later, a Florida job enabled me to visit Miami museums.
(Image 1: Thursday, January 5, 2005, Sue Experiencing Patrizia Giambi's asphalt work "Millemiglia" (1998/2005) in Santa Sofia, Italy)
Day 1 – Friday - New Year’s Eve Extravaganza
After flying into Bologna, Patrizia and I got ready for New Year’s in Forli and then drove to Cisena for a fun dinner party. After midnight, we went to an amazing dance party held in a nearby theater. Around 3am, we arrived at a party in a revamped Faenze school. Too pooped to pop, I didn’t survive the dawn like the revelers in “La Dolce Vita” . 
Sunday, January 9, 2005
Robert Smithson, "Asphalt Run Down" (1969/2005)
Rome, Italy
First ever published image!
Day 2 – Saturday - Day at the Beach!
Having gone to bed around 5:30am, we slept until 2:30pm. We then headed toward Lido de Dante along the Ravenna shoreline. Friends of ours were hanging out at the Art Cafe, the first open restaurant we had seen all day, so we gladly drank some orzo and ate bruschetta. On our way out, the barman offered tastes of prosciutto picante, a real treat. After washing some dishes, we went to Flavio Berni’s house to eat marinated peppers and eggplant that Patrizia had prepared for the prior night’s New Year’s dinner.
Day 3 – Sunday - Day of Strategy
After planning my Torino trip, we strategized our Rome project over risotto. Well after dark, we bought some dried ginger and several exotic flavors (cappuccino, liminato and licorice) of torrone (nougat) at Forli’s holiday market. That evening, we played
the great card game, Machievelli, which not surprisingly inspires fights with
alpha males.
Day 4 – Monday - Day of Research
Patrizia and I met with gallerist Gino in Bologna at his Galleria Neon to conduct our Rome research. I also met with Raffaele Cumani to learn more about Michelangelo Pistoletto’s fascinating project “cittadellarte.” After splitting up, I continued on to Torino. 
Friday, January 7, 2005
Giacome Balla lived in this building's terrace apartment - behind this door.
Rome, Italy
Day 5 - Tuesday - Day of Museums
Forget artseeing when Days 1-4 fall during Italy’s New Year’s Festivities. Starved of art for four days, I awoke around 7am in Torino, rearing to go. I caught the Number 36 bus to Rivoli, where a Number 36N minivan continued up the hill to the infamous Castello di Rivoli. Even though I had seen pictures of Castello di Rivoli for fifteen years, it was much more wonderful than I had ever imagined. The castle’s collection proved refreshing and Italy’s obsession with Franz Kline is fascinating. The most surprising attribute of Carolyn Christov-Barkargiev’s Kline survey was her inclusion of dozens of spry caricatures used to be his business!
Not only is the castle gorgeous in its own right, but it offers the most ecstatic view of the Alps and features works by such diverse artists as Carla Accardi, James Lee Byars, Ettore Spaletti, Mario Merz and Gilberto Zorrio. One of the best projects is Janet Cardiff/George Buresmiller’s video-installation “The Paradise Institute” (2001). Don’t miss the amazing 18th century Op Art floors in the Bachus and Ariadnes
Room. And you must do lunch at the castle...the delicious E$9 buffet is your
best bet in all of Italy.
Francesco Bonami curated an exhibition of women’s art for Fondazione Sandretto Re Raubendengo. What a mixed message! Typical works by famous artists Ellen Gallagher, Mona Hatoum, Emily Jacir, Koo Jeong-a, Senga Nengudi and Valeska Soares were exhibited alongside works by lesser known artists such as Carmit Gil, Michal Herfman,
Daniela Kostova and Nobuko Tsuchiya, whose micro-sprawls were truly
wonderful. 
Friday, January 7, 2005
Giacome Balla lived in this building's terrace apartment - behind this door.
Rome, Italy
I totally enjoyed the Italian modernist collection at Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM), which included several fascinating abstract paintings from the 1930s, as well as Lucio Fontana’s “Concetto Spaziale “ (1952), seven interlocking metal pieces floating on the floor, and his “Teatrino” (1965); Alberto Burri’s sheets of rusted metal paintings (1958); Giuseppe Capogrossi’s graffito-like paintings from the
1950s and the scribbles and scrawls of Emilio Vedova (a friend of Cy Twombly?). GAM featured an interesting exhibition by the contemporary collaborative team Vedova Mazzei, whose conceptual works take on any form. A few of their works recall works by Charles Ray, but not so obviously as Maurizio Cattelan’s. Even Vanessa Beecroft references Charley.
On the way to the Torino train station, I dropped by Peyrano chocolates to select a gift for our Rome host. On the way home from the Forli train station, Patrizia and I stopped by a beautifully designed bar, Le Ombre, where I tasted “Moncalvino, “ a delicious Moscato
grappa. When I followed with a Sangiovese red wine, the owner complained. Evidently, you’re supposed to drink from less to more alcohol in order to avoid getting drunk. Contrarily, I drink from most delicious to least, since the first drink matters most.
Castello di Rivoli- www. castellodirivoli.org
Fondazione Sandretto Re Raubendengo- www.fondsrr.org
Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea-
www.gam.intesa.it
Day 6 - Wednesday- Day of Reckoning
We actually spent an entire day trying to locate information about a radio-advertised E$9 train fare from Milano to Roma. Eight hours later, we gave up and paid full fare.
Day 7 - Thursday- Day of Epiphany
Yet another Italian holiday! Most everything was closed, yet we managed to get around anyway! Patrizia and I drove to Santa Sofia, where I drank the delicious steamed broule, while cheering on Lette’s soccer team against Milano. Despite my spirit, Milano won 5:1. Adjacent this bar is Patrizia’s public art, an asphalt zebra crossing that she placed in front of the municipal building back in 1998. Still there, it’s in need of care. We then visited several outdoor works nearby. Hilariously, the sculpture I considered strongest is a ladder used to reach the water table below. More public work than public art, we started noticing them everywhere. En route to San Michele, via Forli, we stopped by a roadside stand for the local version of a quesadilla.
We then proceeded to the Palazzo del Collegio in San Michele to see Patrizia’s “The
Great Heart “ (2004), a wonderful pavillion that she built for the front yard of a home belonging to two collectors. Evocative of some rather voluptious hips, “The Great Heart” is not only a fountain, but a brilliant red glow shines through its patchy translucent
surface, surrounding an interior space large enough for people to convene.
We then continued onto Ravenna to see the museum’s Alberto Giacometti exhibition. Focused on the relationship between his drawing and his sculptures, this exhibition had a refreshing premise. We laughed aloud during the film: he kept claiming that he wanted to make realistic sculptures, but he was just a failure... We stopped by Flavio’s home to eat a delicious fish he caught and baked for us. I’d say the whole day was truly an
epiphany.
Day 8 - Friday- Architecture Hunting”
As our train from Forli approached Bologna, we experienced a delayed entry into the station, which meant we might miss our Eurostar connection. Once in the station, we
were surprised to find all of the trains slightly delayed. The next day we figured out that the delays were due to a deadly train wreck, just outside Bologna the night before.
After checking into our hotel, we set out to locate Giacomo Balla’s apartment, where Elica (Propeller) and Luce (Light), his daughter-collaborators lived until their death. Having seen footage of their magical atelier in a MOMA video about the Italian Futurists,
I hoped it might be preserved like Paris’ Gustav Moreau Museum. When Galleria Neon’s Gino located its address (39B Oslavia) online, I was determined to see it. Hardly public, the appartment was locked with three locked chains (one for each legal heir). Patrizia walked up a floor and knocked on a door and met a man whose dad, Luigi Marcucci, lived on the sixth floor. A Balla neighbor for 40 years, Luigi had even curated several Balla exhibitions. We were heading down the street ten minutes later when our cell phone rang. The curator and his wife were inviting us over for some Balla ballads. Anticipating that he would at least show us some pictures of the apartment, we returned.
Several hours later, we emerged from their apartment appreciative of their stories, but little changed. I did discover, however, that I could reach the Balla’s terrace if I descended a two-storey rope ladder, suspended from the Marcucci’s kitchen window.
MAXXI, our next stop, is a museum dedicated to 21st century art that’s constructing a building designed by Zaha Hadid. There, we saw a solo show of works by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, as well as a survey for Italian artist Stefano Arienti. Very near
several interesting buildings, we stopped by Pier Luigi Nervi’s “Palazzetto dello Sport” (1956/7) to watch young men play basketball en route to Renzo Piano’s amazing performance halls (four). Despite all of this activity, we arrived on time to meet Sergio, our dinner date who led us to a tavern, whose budding underground club has tons
of performance possibilities.
Day 9 - Saturday- Day of Dashed Hopes
Fully confident that our 6pm meeting with Fabio Sargentini, the man who originally organized Robert Smithson’s “Asphalt Run Down”(1969) for the hugely influential alternative space L’Attico Roma, would lead us to Smithson’s earthwork, we felt particularly calm all day. We began our morning with Carla Accardi’s wonderful survey at MACRO, another contemporary art museum in Roma. I was especially eager to see this show since her work at the Castello di Rivoli and her 1969 plastic tent, exhibited at PS1 in 2001, had totally impressed me. An amazingly inventive painter, every serious museum must acquire one of her wonderful 1970 paintings on sicofoil.
While Patrizia rested in our hotel room that afternoon, I took a public bus to Richard Meier’s “Chiesa del Giubileo” , which was unfortunately closed. We met up with Roman curator Giuliana in the Campo di Fiore. She toured us around several nearby galleries (Il Ponte Contemporanea, Studio Trisorio Roma, V.M. 21 and Magazzino D’Arte
Moderna), the currently topless Pantheon and Sargentini’s newest venue,
Associazone Culturale L’Attico, where Giuseppe Capitano’s work responds well to the historic rooms. Sargentino told us that although Smithson would really appreciate our searching for his invisible, 35-year old work, he wouldn’t tell us how to find it. Our hopes dashed, we had only the original (now outdated) map that Nancy Holt had provided. Fortunately, Sargentino’s assistant told us that it was in the vicinity of the subway’s last stop. Like our prior visit with the Balla curator, we emerged little changed. We would start from scratch the next morning and discover what we could. We ended the day with a super delicious dinner at Tram Tram, a restaurant sited alongside a tram track, southeast of the train station near San Lorenzo.
Il Ponte Contemporaneo- www.ilpontecontemporanea.com
Studio Trisorio- www.studiotrisorio.com
V.M. 21- (email only) Vm21artecontemporanea@virgilio.it
Magazzino Arte Moderna- www.magazzinoartemoderna.com
Day 10 - Sunday- The Big Art Hunt
This is perhaps the most exciting day of my entire life. We awoke early and took the subway south unsure of where to depart. We got off at several stops and received various directions to the Cava di Selce, the area on the map circled by Smithson 35 years ago. Cava di Selce means something like ‘93extraction cave,’94 so few knew how to respond to our quest for emptiness. Smithson was a funny guy. After getting off a bus at its last stop, we started searching around a neighborhood. We even rang people’s doorbells and Patrizia discussed possibilities via gate intercoms. The surrounding neighborhood is essentially a brand new development with tons of new homes under construction and mostly new arrivals who can’t imagine a Cava di Selce in the vicinity of their exclusive communities. When she asked questions, few had a clue as to what we were looking for, let alone where it could be. Strangely enough, we started walking down a hill and then noticed the totally familiar looking ridge. We kept walking and walking. As we got closer, it seemed more and more familiar. Fortunately, we approached it from the vantage popularized by art history texts, otherwise we would never have recognized it. The cava is actually adjacent a major road, which runs along a ridge that totally obscures the quarry below. This story’s many fascinating details will be disclosed elsewhere.
Needless to say, we now needed a photograph of the 1969 action, so that we could have a standard. We had unfortunately left the L’Attico Roma catalog in Patrizia’s Forli apartment, so we headed to the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna to find a book with its image in their museum shop. After forty minutes of hunting, we gave up, so I decided to check out the collection. This museum must have the largest Duchamp collection outside of Philadelphia. Evidently, Arturo Schwarz bequeathed a set of Duchamp multiples in 2000, which they added to other works. Several of their intriguing galleries emulate historic exhibitions, using works from the fifties and sixties. Not surprisingly, the Galleria Nazionale have a wonderful collection of Futurist paintings and sculptures.
While I was traipsing around the museum, which had been renovated since my 1999 visit, Patrizia discovered two color images in Todd Godfrey’s “Conceptual Art” . With the necessary evidence in place, we could re-examine the site and request quarry workers to confirm its identity. That night, our friend Sergio prepared a massive meal, which we ate while watching “The Story of My Son” , a gorgeously filmed made-for-TV
movie about a Trieste police chief’s gay son.
Day 11 - Monday- Day of Delay
All night long, I kept thinking that I needed to get back to that quarry to talk to the workers. I awoke early enough to be at the site around 10am, but there was delay after delay. I easily got to the right subway station, but after missing the first bus, bus after bus kept breaking down. Around noon, I decided to catch the bus after eating a leisurely lunch. Full of dust and noisy machinery, the workers denied any relationship between the catalog photo and the place. When I called Patrizia, she couldn’t get any information out of them either. They saw the photo as a portrait of the quarry when it began and since it’s 70 years old, the 1969 date didn’t make sense. The workers sent me to a nearby quarry, which looked nothing like the photo, and their workers returned me to the first site. Pretty convinced that we’ve found it, we hope to give tours in late summer.
At around 4pm, I met up with Patrizia at the Campo di Fiore. For all of my efforts that day, I emerged little changed, though I now know who owns the quarry and how to contact them. After the dress rehearsal for Sergio’s one-person musical/comedy, we brought home pizza and chicken and watched the second half of “The Story of My Son” .
Day 12 - Tuesday- Paris by Night
Filled with about as much excitement as a person can stand, I arrived 45 minutes early for my train to the Bologna station, where a short bus ride brought me to the airport. Not only is Bologna the world’s easiest exit, but my plane arrived early in Paris.
Awaiting me at Cafe Camelia, Jean-Francois Paquy later whisked me all around town in under four hours. After walking to Passage de Retz, a Marais alternative space where we saw the exhibition “La Photo Ecrite 1950-2005” ; we visited Places de Vosges and enjoyed an unbelievable appetizer at La Rouge Gorge (The Robin), before galavanting back to Gare du Nord, where he caught the train to Bruxelles. After checking into a super cheap hotel across the street ($E35 above Bar Belge), I went to a bar to watch Marseille play Lille. Still curious about Jean Nouvel’s “Fondation Cartier” two beers later, I jumped in the subway and headed south. Before returning to my ‘91hood, I stopped to spend my last $5E on a nightcap in a rather posh neighborhood bistro.
Day 24 - Sunday- Miami Holiday
Hard to imagine, but Ruth Westheimer, my elderly employer, was eager to accompany me to Miami to check out the museum exhibitions. A little after 9am, we headed southeast from Sanibel, where we’re currently living, along US 75, stopping once to stretch out our legs. Around 12:30pm, we arrived at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, where we saw a beautifully installed exhibition of Art Deco paintings hung above totally innovative furniture, all from the collection of the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
After stopping at the Days Inn South Beach to check out the pool for a future exhibition, we ate cheap Cuban food at David’s Cafe on Collins Avenue and headed to the Miami Museum of Art to see “Beyond Geometry” , an exhibition I was worried that I might not get to see, since I didn’t get to LA in time to see it at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibitions’ twin highlights were Francois Morellet’s "4 Self-Distorting Grids" (1965), four kinetic grids that expand and contract so as to mutate in every direction and Helio Oiticica’s “Nucleus 6” (1960-63), an installation of dozens of suspended orange planar panels, a work that I knew from reproduction, but had never seen in person. The Miami Art Museum assembled several contemporary works for “Light and Atmosphere “ in response to this historical exhibition. A mix of Oiticica’s interior space and Morellet’s mutation, the third show,
Fabio Marcaccio’s “Paintant” , was a giant curving plastically-painted wall that participants entered, so as to experience the mutation from white to black.
Bass Art Museum- www.bassmuseum.org
Miami Art Museum- www.miamiartmuseum.org
