Be The Tiber.
Tribute to the River Tiber.
In ‘Be the Tiber. Tribute to the river Tiber’, the artist Andrea Conte (Andreco) and a group of performers lead a river raid, setting off from Scalo De Pinedo in a rafting boat and waving flags depicting sections of the Tiber in the historic centre, before landing in Piazza Tevere. Once ashore, they join other members holding flags depicting the remaining stretches of the river, from Castel Giubileo to its mouth, giving life to a collective performance. Between the arches of Ponte Sisto and the banks of the Tiber, an imaginative ritual takes place to pay symbolic and political homage to the river, understood as a living organism, a legal entity and an archive of collective memories. The performers become the river and reaffirm their rights: “We are water, we are the river, we are the Tiber crying out for justice”. At the end, some performers climb back onto the rubber dinghy to continue their descent down the river, passing the rapids of the Tiber Island and under the Emilio bridge, known as Ponte Rotto, letting themselves be carried away by the current. The initiative invites deep reflection on the relationship between the city, water and the environment, restoring the Tiber to a central role in the urban imagination and in the construction of new ecological alliances.

The artist Andrea Conte (Andreco) presented the performance “Tribute to the River Tiber” as part of the exhibition “I Fiumi del Mondo” (Rivers of the World) at the MACRO Museum and Piazza Tevere in Rome, promoted by IPER Festival 2025. The work was created on 14 May, in collaboration with Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, IPER Festival, Studio Andreco, Climate Art Project, Futurecologies, Tevereterno, A4C – Artsforthecommons and Roma Rafting.

‘We are water, we are a river, we are the Tiber crying out for justice.’

Video Credit:
Title
Be the River Tiber
Subtitle Action for the rights of the Tiber River
Directed by
Andrea Conte (Andreco)
Production Team: Daniele Cimaglia, Luisa Fioravanti, Gianni Russo, Giuseppe Teano
Intern: Francesco Balestra
Performers:
Koni Liliana Venero Escobar, Linda Foster, Stefania Pettinato, Gabriella Polizzi, Francesca Maggi, Silvia Filippi, Kristin Jones, Brooklyn Richardson, Caleb Skene, Francesco Balestra, Luisa Fioravanti, Fabio De Sanctis
Video and editing: Monkey studio lab
Produced with the support of:
Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, Iper Festival, Climate Art Project, Studio Andreco, Roma Rafting, Tevereterno, Futurecologies
Video courtesy:
Andreco Studio, Climate Art Project, Iper Festival.

Photos: Daniele Cimaglia for Studio Andreco