Description:

"One Dark Wall: Waking Up to the Aeneid in 1985" 

Join professor Francesca Tataranni (Department of Classics) and filmmaker CA Davis (Media and Design Studio) for a conversation about classical receptions, digital storytelling, and the production of scholarship in sound and image.

In 1984, artist and Northwestern alumna Irene Siegel was commissioned to produce artwork for Chicago’s Sulzer Regional Library. She chose to create a four-wall fresco depicting scenes from Vergil’s Aeneid but, halfway through the process, met with fierce criticism from the community and was forced to halt the work. Classics professor Francesca Tataranni’s video essay One Dark Wall revisits months of community protest to have the fresco removed and tries to shed light on Siegel’s attempt to engage the public in a “contemporary reading” of the Roman epic. 

Participants are strongly encouraged to preview One Dark Wall (https://vimeo.com/370411809) before the talk. 

Register here.