Curating Fascism: Exhibitions and Memory from the Fall of Mussolini to Today (Visual Cultures and Italian Contexts)

On the centenary of the fascist party's ascent to power in Italy, Curating Fascism examines the ways in which exhibitions organized from the fall of Benito Mussolini's regime to the present day have shaped collective memory, historical narratives, and political discourse around the Italian ventennio . It charts how shows on fascism have evolved since the postwar period in Italy, explores representations of Italian fascism in exhibitions across the world, and highlights blindspots in art and cultural history, as well as in exhibition practices. Featuring contributions from an international group of art, architectural, design, and cultural historians, as well as journalists and curators, this book treats fascism as both a historical moment and as a major paradigm through which critics, curators, and the public at large have defined the present moment since World War II. It interweaves historical perspectives, critical theory, and direct accounts of exhibitions from the people who conceived them or responded to them most significantly in order to examine the main curatorial strategies, cultural relevance, and political responsibility of art exhibitions focusing on the Fascist period. Through close analysis, the chapter authors unpack the multifaceted specificity of art shows, including architecture and exhibition design; curatorial choices and institutional history; cultural diplomacy and political history; theories of viewership; and constructed collective memory, to evaluate current curatorial practice. In offering fresh new perspectives on the historiography, collective memory, and understanding of fascist art and culture from a contemporary standpoint, Curating Fascism sheds light on the complex exhibition history of Italian fascism not just within Italy but in such countries as the USA, the UK, Germany, and Brazil. It also presents an innovative approach to the growing field of exhibition theory by bringing contributions from curators and exhibition historians, who critically reflect upon curatorial strategies with respect to the delicate subject of fascism and fascist art, into dialogue with scholars of Italian studies and art historians. In doing so, the book addresses the physical and cultural legacy of fascism in the context of the current historical moment. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction Sharon Hecker and Raffaele Bedarida Part 1 Rethinking Historical Exhibitions in Italy 1 Exhibiting Art of the Fascist Ventennio: Curatorial Choices, Installation Strategies, and Critical Reception from Arte Moderna in Italia 1915–1935 (Florence, 1967) to Annitrenta (Milan, 1982) Luca Quattrocchi 2 Pluralism as Revisionism: Annitrenta at Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1982 Denis Viva 3 Interview with Renato Barilli, Curator of the Annitrenta Exhibition (Milan, 1982) Raffaele Bedarida and Sharon Hecker 4 Art, Life, Politics, and the Seductiveness of Italian Fascism: Post Zang Tumb Tuuum at Fondazione Prada, Milan, 2018 Raffaele Bedarida and Sharon Hecker 5 Italy’s Holocaust on Display: From Carpi-Fossoli to Auschwitz (to Florence) Robert S. C. Gordon 6 Umbertino Umbertino: The Many Masks of Rome’s Palazzo delle Esposizioni Romy Golan Part 2 Exhibitions of Fascism around the World 7 Exhibiting and Collecting the F-word in Britain Rosalind McKever 8 Novecento Brasiliano: Margherita Sarfatti, Ciccillo Matarazzo, and the Italian Collection of MAC USP Ana Gonçalves Magalhães 9 Contextualizing Razionalismo in the Exhibition Photographic Recall (2019): Fascist Spaces in Contemporary German Photography Miriam Paeslack 10 Feeling at Home: Exhibiting Design, Blurring Fascism Elena Dellapiana and Jonathan Mekinda 11 Italian Jewish Artists and Fascist Cultural Politics: On Gardens and Ghettos at the Jewish Museum in New York (1989) Emily Braun, interviewed by Raffaele Bedarida and Sharon Hecker Part 3 Absences 12 Exhibiting the Homoerotic Body, the Queer Afterlife of Ventennio Male Nudes John Champagne 13 “Partigiano Portami Via”: Exhibiting Antifascism and the Resistance in Post-Fascist Italy Raffaele Bedarida 14 Looking at Women and Mental Illness in Fascist Italy: An Exhibition’s Dialogical and Feminist Approach Lucia Re 15 Silencing the Colonial Past: The 1993 Exhibition Architettura italiana d’oltremare 1870–1940 in Bologna Nicola Labanca 16 Recharting Landscapes in the Exhibition Roma Negata: Postcolonial Routes of the City (2014) and the Digital Project Postcolonial Italy: Mapping Colonial Heritage Shelleen Greene Part 4 Curatorial Practices 17 From MRF to Post Zang Tumb Tuuum: The Responsibilities of the Rehang Vanessa Rocco 18 The Final Ramp: Addressing Fascism in Italian Futurism at the Guggenheim Museum Vivien Greene and Susan Thompson 19 The Making of MART and the Archivio del Novecento: Interview with Gabriella Belli Sharon Hecker and Raffaele Bedarida 20 Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Reconstructing Artists’ Studios in Exhibitions on Fascist-era Art Sharon Hecker 21 Interview with Maaza Mengiste on Project3541: A Photographic Archive of the 1935–41 Italo-Ethiopian War Raffaele Bedarida and Sharon Hecker Index The world is in crisis, bringing activists and protestors onto the streets and into the public eye. More than ever, activism relies on spectacle and visibility in order to be noticed in the era of globalized capitalism and networked media. At the same time, a growing number of artists employ creative strategies to critique the establishment, act in resistance, and demand change. Visual activism of this kind is not new, but it is rapidly evolving. This anthology presents 22 case-studies of visual activism from across the globe, providing an up-to-date picture of the impact of contemporary visual and art activism, and combining a scholarly interrogation of visual activism with an examination of how it works in practice. The case studies address a wide range of issues including human rights abuses; state violence; gender and sexuality; racism; migration; and climate breakdown. They examine a range of approaches from playful carnivalesque parades to extreme practices such as ‘gluing-on’ and ‘lip-sewing’, and are drawn from a wide range of international contexts – from Europe and the US to Israel, Palestine, Iran, India, Pakistan, Tunisia, and China. This diverse scope enables readers to consider examples comparatively – noticing emerging trends and key differences to reveal how geopolitical and cultural factors play an important role in shaping activist practices. This rich and timely collection provides a fresh perspective on the possibilities, limitations and politics of visual activism, as activists, artists, and curators respond to the changing world around them in this most uncertain of times.