April 1 was no joke for Ultima Generazione (UG), a group of Italian climate activists who staged a joint protest in Rome and Ancona that morning. Members of the group used a charcoal-based powder to dye the water of the Barcaccia Fountain in front of the Spanish Steps in central Rome a deep black and coated the historic 13-spout Calamo Fountain in Ancona with a long banner bearing the organization’s logo. “We don’t pay for Fossil[s]” slogan.
The two protests took place less than an hour apart on Saturday morning, with the UG citing the right-wing Italian government’s allegiance to fossil fuel projects to 2028 in the middle of the water access policy with increased flooding And drought episodes during the last years. In a press release, UG said the staging of the fountain protests was symbolic of “the refreshment offered by water and, on the other hand, the danger it can pose”.
The organization also cited Italy’s outdated water supply infrastructure which was responsible for leakage of more than 40% of water crossed its aqueducts in 2020, raising fears of a privatization of access to water exacerbated by climate disasters. Ultima Generazione did not immediately respond to Hyperallergic request for comment.
Pope Urban VIII commissioned Pietro Bernini (father of Gian Lorenzo Bernini) to design and create the Barcaccia Fountain for the Spanish Steps in 1623. Bernini’s fountain design references a legendary 1598 Tiber flood that dropped off a small boat in the Spanish Steps in central Rome. , a design that UG says foreshadows the “end of the world” scenario that Italy is heading towards. The Calamo fountain in Ancona was incorporated into the city by the architect Pellegrino Tibaldi in 1560, built with 13 spouts to welcome visitors to the city after long journeys.
“It is absurd that this gesture shocks you, when we are living through an emergency drought that is putting agriculture, energy production in crisis,” said the the organization said in a tweet showing video of a protester blackening the water. “How can we accept that we continue to give money to those responsible for pollution and destructive weather?
Police apprehended the activists minutes after the protests began, forcing the three members of the group out of charcoal-stained water from the Barcaccia Fountain and taking information about protesters blocking the Calamo Fountain.
Roman Mayor Roberto Gualtieri denounced the incidents on Twitterstating that throwing black dye into the water of the Barcaccia Fountain was “an absolutely bad move that does not help the environment”.
“We share the battle but not this wrong way of fighting it,” Mayor Gualtieri said. Twitter thread continued. “Monuments must be respected because they belong to everyone.”
Ultima Generazione is best known for its activists stick to Sandro Botticelli’s “Primavera” (circa 1490) at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence last July and at the Sculpture “Laocoon and his sons” at the Vatican last August.
