ROME — The Colosseum or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium, Italian Anfiteatro Flavio or Colosseo), is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering. In September the Coliseum will burn down! "Coliseum on Fire" is the title for this seductive and spectacular artistic gesture that involves the world’s most famous ancient monument. For the artists behind this video-installation, Thyra Hilden from Denmark and Pio Diaz from Argentina, the basic idea is an overwhelming fire that will entirely consume the Roman arena. The video-installation will take place consecutively on the nights of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th of September.
The Amphitheatre occupying a site just east of the Roman Forum, its construction started between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus, with further modifications being made during Domitian’s reign (81–96).
Coliseum on Fire is part of a wider project, City on Fire, which the artists Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz have devoted themselves to for some years, creating virtual fires in important institutions, monuments, museums, and churches throughout Europe. The events in Berlin, Frankfurt, Kiev, Aarhus, and Copenhagen were especially memorable. The Coliseum is the symbol of a cultural heritage that has lasted through time. The symbolic inferno that the artists enact has the aim of making us think about what the loss of our cultural patrimony would mean. Fire, the archaic and primordial symbol of light, will illuminate the vestiges of ancient Rome and will at the same time evoke the purifying force leading to a resurrection.