Chance Encounter on the Tiber - 2010
In May 2010, TEVERETERNO onlus was very pleased to join MAXXI – Museo delle arti del XXI secolo in producing
Chance Encounter on the Tiber, a new collaborative work by place-maker Robert Hammond and composer Lisa
Bielawa. An urban revitalization project combined with a musical performance composed expressly for outdoor
public space, Chance Encounter was performed on Sunday, May 30 and Monday, May 31 by soprano Susan Narucki,
the Brooklyn Rider String Quartet from New York, and Rome’s Blue Chamber Orchestra.
On Sunday, May 30, two preview performances of the project were presented at Italy’s new national museum
of contemporary art, the Museo delle arti del XXI secolo (MAXXI) as part of the museum's opening celebration
weekend with an installation in the museum's piazza and musical performances both inside and outside the museum.
On Monday, May 31, one hundred chairs were placed along the walkway on the side of the Tiber River at Ponte Sisto.
As immersive musical performances unfolded around them, viewers were invited to explore place-making and time
in this participatory work, which incorporated flexible seating arrangements – moveable chairs that invited the
public to interact with the river site.
Robert Hammond and Lisa Bielawa, Chance Encounter on the Tiber (2010), Piazza Tevere, Rome, Italy. Photo by: Marco Martinelli
Hammond/Bielawa, Chance Encounter on the Tiber (2010), MAXXI and the Piazza Tevere, Rome, Italy.
Photos by: Marco Martinelli – L, R; Marcello Melis – C
tevereterno onlus
Piazza di Sant’Anastasia, 3
00186 - Roma
Italia
289 Bleecker Street
New York City, NY 10014
USA
[email protected]
tevereterno.it
Chance Encounter on the Tiber - 2010
Chance Encounter on the Tiber was inspired by William Whyte's studies in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, in
which he discovered that one of the most successful tools in creating vibrant spaces was the use of movable chairs.
Among his most memorable findings is that people create personal ownership of public space by being able to
control where and how they sit in the urban environment.
Hammond was drawn to the semi-abandoned nature of the Tiber walkways. They reminded him of his early
experiences on the New York City High Line. Drawing from Whyte's work, Hammond decided to try an experiment:
place 100 movable park chairs on the open space along the Tiber River and see what happens. Beginning in early May,
Hammond tested with chair placement and documented, through time-lapse photography and video, how people
interact with and use them.
When Bielawa saw the Tiber walkway at Ponte Sisto, she recognized it as an ideal environment for her musical
composition Chance Encounter, which was written expressly for performance in transient public spaces. Designed
to break down the conventions of concert music (with assigned seats in fixed rows, performers on defined stage
spaces, paid admission, and fixed, ritual attention), the immersive sound work is structured to unfold dramatically
around an unsuspecting public, as a chamber orchestra arrives from all over the city, ready to play. Composed for
world-renowned soprano Susan Narucki and twelve instruments, the work's sung libretto is comprised entirely of
utterances that Bielawa overheard over the course of a full year of travel in transient public spaces around the world
– Rome, Taipei, Anchorage, Salzburg, Dallas, and beyond.
A potent example of how artists can affect the life of public spaces, Hammond and Bielawa turned the notion of
urban planning inside out with Chance Encounter on the Tiber, inviting the public inside the process in their playful
yet directed, interactive study of site usage on the Tiber.
Robert Hammond and Lisa Bielawa Chance Encounter on the Tiber (2010), Piazza Tevere, Rome, Italy. Photos by: Marcello Melis
tevereterno onlus
Piazza di Sant’Anastasia, 3
00186 - Roma
Italia
289 Bleecker Street
New York City, NY 10014
USA
[email protected]
tevereterno.it
Chance Encounter on the Tiber - 2010
Place-maker: Robert Hammond
Composer: Lisa Bielawa
Soloist: Susan Narucki
Musicians: Brooklyn Rider String Quartet, featuring:
Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen
Nicholas Cords
Eric Jacobsen
Violin
Viola
Cello
Artistic Director: Kristin Jones
Assistant to the Artistic Director: Diane Roehm
Public Relations – Italy: Sara Resnati (Otto)
Public Relations – USA: Christina Jensen (Christina Jensen PR)
Graphic and Web Design: Pino Fortunato and Angelo Marinelli (Fortunato Productions)
Catalogue: Chance Encounter
Technical Consultants: Step s.r.l
Intern: Nathalie Sienkiewicz
Special thanks to: Lisa Lowenstein, Carlo Ducci, Andrea Canapa, and Sandra Carraro
Produced in partnership with:
Associazione TEVERETERNO onlus and MAXXI – Museo delle arti del XXI secolo
In collaboration with: Comune di Roma, Assessorato alle Politiche Culturali e della Comunicazioni, Regione
Lazio, Creative Capital, and Fortunato Productions
With the support of: The American Academy in Rome (AAR), and the University of California, San Diego
Chance Encounter on the Tiber was made possible by: Pershing Square Foundation/Bill and Karen Ackman,
Amanda Burden, The Catherine C. Marron Foundation, Joyce Menschel, Charles C. Butt, Joshua C. Klausner
and Hyatt A. Bass, R. Martin Chavez, Philip and Shelley Fox Aarons, Herbert Bielawa and Sandra Soderlund,
Capalino + Company and James Capalino, Adele Chatfield-Taylor and John Guare, Bruce & Janet Flohr, Alice
Waters, Bronson van Wyck, Leonard Barkan, Keith Baptista, Robert and Ina Caro, Stephan Jaklitsch, Martin
Goldray, David Gordon, Todd Gordon and Susan Feder, Yen Ha, William Jonas Hibsher, Mario Palumbo, Darren
Walker, Robert Kirzinger, Marc Kushner, Maline McCalla, Lisa Singer Moran, David Pagliano, Josh Sirefman,
Cameron Smith, Eileen V. Green, Tara Morris and Jessica Dalrymple
With the participation of TEVERETERNO donors:
David Bermant Foundation: Color, Light, Motion
Candy Jernigan Foundation for the Arts, Inc.
Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
Fleming Charitable Trust
tevereterno onlus
Piazza di Sant’Anastasia, 3
00186 - Roma
Italia
289 Bleecker Street
New York City, NY 10014
USA
[email protected]
tevereterno.it