To mark the anniversary of Pasolini’s death, from 2 to 6 November the Pier Paolo Pasolini. Everything Is Sacred exhibition will be hosting the original manuscript of a poem that Elsa Morante wrote for her slain friend entitled A P.P.P. In nessun posto, dated Rome, 13 February 1976. The manuscript is part of the Morante Archive housed in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Rome’s National Central Library.
 
Elsa Morante wrote the letter to Pasolini on 13 February 1976, over a year after his death. It was a letter in the form of a poem after their relationship had seriously deteriorated from 1971 until it broke off completely and silence reigned in 1974, in the wake of Pasolini’s review of her novel La Storia (History: A Novel).
 
Enrique Irazoqui (who played the role of Jesus in The Gospel According to Saint Matthew) recalled that «at Paolini’s funeral, there was Elsa, sitting in a corner. They hadn’t spoken with one another in years after going at each other hammer and tongs, but I really appreciated that small gesture. Of all the people celebrating his memory out loud, many of them spilling crocodile tears, Elsa sat off to one side, weeping, stricken by her friend’s death. I shall carry that image with me for ever, in my heart».
 
A P.P.P. In Nessun Posto marks one of the peaks of poetic achievement in the whole of Elsa Morante’s output, but even more importantly, it is one of the loftiest invocations of friendship ever devised.
 
With special thanks to Carlo Cecchi.

Informazioni

Admission with the exhibition ticket

Palazzo delle Esposizioni

via Nazionale 194