Tevere/Periyar. Isla Tiberia, River Tiber, Rome. 2016.

February 12th, 2016

The River Tiber's connections to the Periyar River along the Kerala coast are historic, mythic, maritime, and cultural. Christian missioniaries, Roman coins, Jews fleeing the pillage of the Second Temple, maritime trade between Ostia and the Indian Ocean. At the historic site of the fifteenth century wall of the Roman Jewish ghetto along the River Tiber, Harmattan created a spontaneous performance of memory and forgiveness on the morning of Pope Francis's first, and the Pope's only 3rd papal visit to the Roman Jewish ghetto over the history of the Vatican. The ancient walled ghetto was always flooded, damp, and situated below the Tiber's floodplain at the ancient site of an old circus. Walking along the Tiber at Isla Tiberina on January 17, 2016 was a journey in history and memory..