The Logo and the Motto propose together to reflect about a crucial argument for archaeology, history and anthropology: in the passing of time, persistence and change act together and combine themselves variously.
PHOTO Forum, PHOTO St Peter's
Rome is a perfect place for this reflection, as particularly clear from its architecture and roads: we can see ancient walls and paths modified, transformed, brought again to light, and still persisting. But also institutions and powers renewing and reversing, with a strong persistence of elements and meanings, even in front of major changes. The Roman Empire was no more, and the Pope's temporal and spiritual power followed; a city pretending to be eternal, but slowly and continuously modifying and adapting.
"Persisting with change" points to the processes of endurance, continuity, renewal, as well as resilience, resistance, residuality; that is, active, passive, cooperative and contrastive persistence, in front of, together with, through and notwithstanding necessary change in every moment and aspect of human life and world trajectory.
PHOTO of changing walls
And here comes the logo: the central axis is the Tiber River, named "blonde" for Its mighty muddy waters, as a sign of persistence and longue durée that has shaped the geography and the human landscape of Rome and the Region, since the oldest prehistory. Built around the river and crossed by it, is the changing texture of the urban environment, as a mark of continuity through change. The wall transformations from the dark stone (tufa) square cubilia, embedded in the concrete of late republican Rome, to the red bricks of later architectures, from Imperial Roman to Medieval and Modern times, are a metaphor of this conundrum and solution, that is persisting with change.
"If we want that everything remains the same, it is necessary that everything changes." G. Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1957) - The Leopard