POMPEII – A CITY IN ANCIENT ROME

Do you know that Pompeii was once a bustling city in ancient Rome but was completely buried under thick ash in 79 A.D when the volcano Vesuvius erupted?

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to find out what happened to Pompeii and its people when the eruption took place:

Run, sail, or hide? How to survive the destruction of Pompeii - Gary Devore

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While the hot, volcanic ash of Vesuvius destroyed the entire city of Pompeii, it also perfectly preserved its structures, objects, and people. This enabled many archaeologists to conduct excavations and understand how life was like in Pompeii during that time.

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to see the discoveries by archaeologists at the Pompeii excavation site:

NOW, READ THIS ARTICLE to find out more about recent archaeological finds of Pompeii:

The continuing discoveries at Pompeii

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Pompeii’s recent finds reveal new clues to city’s destruction

What kind of objects were found at Pompeii, and what do they show about the people and their lives? Pick 3 objects from Pompeii that you find interesting, and describe what they tell you about the way people in Pompeii lived:

POMPEII – WHAT DO THE THINGS WE LEAVE BEHIND, SAY ABOUT THE LIVES WE LIVED?

Pompeii is a SIFA 2023 commission inspired by the city of Pompeii and its discoveries, in which a narrator tells the stories of a group of residents living in an imagined apartment building as their lives unfolded before calamity strikes, reducing them and their existence to only objects and memories.

A collaboration between Australia-born artist Edith Podesta and Singapore film-maker K. Rajagopal, Pompeii is a live cinema theatre performance that explores the idea of whether the objects and spaces that people leave behind when they disappear truly represent who they are, or if they say something about the lives that were unfulfilled and denied.

This idea is explored through:

The Archaeologist And His Recordings

What if one day, a catastrophe was to happen, and the residents of the apartment are no longer around? What would future archaeologists discover?

In Pompeii, the archaeologist plays the role of a narrator, making a series of audio recordings on his findings of the residents, based on the objects he unearthed from its remains.

MEMORIES OF THE RESIDENTS, ACTED OUT ON STAGE

In Pompeii, memories of the residents are acted out on stage, giving the audience insights into the lives of the residents.

Are the residents actively aware of their own existence in which they are living their lives, or are they merely just memories of people who once lived in the apartment?

Live Cinema

Pompeii is not just a stage performance; it also has an additional film screening playing at the same time as the stage action.

As the audience watches on, they get to be in a position where they can notice and observe more intimate details about the residents, up close and personal.

“Live cinema allows for us, the audience, to see the interiority of people and things by making visible the process of construction as well as the finished product - both viewed simultaneously. There is a suspended screen above the stage, a minimum of three cameras moving around on stage, with a minimum of two hundred different camera positions and the editor cutting video footage live. In many ways it’s like watching a movie being filmed live where the actors are unaware of the presence of the audience or their own role in the artifice of film making” - Edith Podesta

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How important do you think objects, memories and actions are, in relation to the way people live their lives? What about when people are gone – what roles do objects, memories and actions play then?

In what ways do you think Pompeii the performance, is similar or different to Pompeii the city and its excavations and discoveries?

SIMILARITIES

What is your understanding of the relationship between objects, spaces, and people, after finding out more about Pompeii the city and Pompeii the performance?

Pen down your thoughts: