Peter Greenaway. Saskia Boddeke. I figli dell'Uranio. The children of Uranium

The performance-drama, the installation and this book of THE CHILDREN OF URANIUM are based on the verities of the atomic table from 1 to 92, from Hydrogen to Uranium. And with Uranium, and the advent of nuclear fission and the atomic bomb, the control and command of all the elements appears suddenly to be possible. How has this come about, who is responsible and how do we argue those responsibilities? There is a list of eight contestants who might give us an answer. They are Isaac Newton who could be said to have founded modern science, Joseph Smith, Mormon Founder, who searched and dug for the ultimate American treasure, which turned out to be uranium, Marie Curie, martyr to the powers of radiation, Albert Einstein, self-evident prophet of relativity, Robert Oppenheimer, guilt-struck manufacturer of the atomic bomb who was castigated by a xenophobic public for his conscience and compassion, Nikita Kruschev, Soviet leader responsible for making us all understand the real possibilities of atomic destruction, Mikhail Gorbachov, last Communist leader of Soviet Russia who defused East-West Détente, and the President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, whose self-righteous belligerence may threaten us all, all over again.