A Roaming Refugium: Uljana Wolf's Chapbook ROM, EIN ROAMING

Wolf published ROM, EIN ROAMING (2019) as part of the annual report of Rome’s Villa Massimo following a period of residence there in 2018. The short text comprises diverse textual forms and includes three photographic black-andwhite double spreads, two of which feature blurred images of cats. This chapter explores how – through the errant cat – the text figures Rome as a city-space in permanent translation, examining how multiple languages and layers of history interact without reaching stabilization. In ROM, EIN ROAMING, the city appears and disappears as a porous ecosystem, whilst the cat forms a textual palimpsest provoking unexpected interlingual connections. Textual memories of the past also form projections of futurity to move beyond dualisms of organic and inorganic, body and place, human and animal. Inscribed in the name Roma, the text conceives translation as a nomadic practice that does not ever seek arrival but instead is concerned to reveal bewildering networks and new spaces.