Doug Aitken's 'Frontier' on Tiber Island Blurs Cinema and City

Doug Aitken's installation 'Frontier' was presented on Tiber Island in Rome from October 23 to November 23, 2009, as part of the Enel Contemporanea program. The work features a 16-minute film starring Ed Ruscha as a wanderer, projected within a custom-built quadrilateral pavilion on the island. The structure is permeable, with openings that allow views of the film from surrounding bridges and streets, while also framing views of the city from inside. This setup challenges traditional cinematic space, merging the ancient and modern city, and contrasting American mythology (the Wild West, decentralized cities) with European models (the agora as social and political heart). The film employs montage to transport the protagonist across disparate locations, including an abandoned desert town with a ruined casino, Roman piazzas, and buildings in Israel, ultimately looping back to the cinema. Aitken's work explores urban space as both fictional and projective, as seen in earlier pieces like 'Electric Earth' and 'Sleepwalkers' (where he projected onto MoMA's facade). The project was supported by Enel, the Italian national electricity company, which has increasingly engaged in contemporary art patronage. The installation rethinks art's relationship with architecture and urban experience, moving beyond normative museum contexts.