Collecting Mussolini: The Case of the Susmel–Bargellini Collection

Heritage Studies has dealt with Italian Fascism in different ways but paying little attention to the movable items linked to the regime, such as paintings, sculptures and memorabilia. Over the last decade, private collections linked to the Mussolini iconography have emerged, owing to a renewed social acceptance of it and more items of Mussoliniana being readily available. Due to the reluctance of experts to confront this issue and the expansion of private museums in Italy, spontaneous initiatives have sprung up including a permanent exhibition of Mussolini iconography as part of the MAGI’900 Museum in Pieve di Cento, which consists of approximately 250 portraits of the Duce in different media. The nucleus of the original collection once belonged to the historian Duilio Susmel and was part of a large documentary collection put together during the 1960s and 1970s. Susmel hoped it would become a museum or a centre for Fascist studies, but ultimately it remained in his private villa near Florence until the 1990s. The archive is now split between Rome and Salò, and the Mussoliniana was purchased by Bargellini, who added busts, paintings and knick-knacks. Since 2009 it has been on display in a section of Bargellini’s museum entitled Arte del Ventennio. Therefore, the Italian State tolerates its existence but sadly it is ignored by most experts, despite the study opportunities it offers.

Legacy of Teispian and Achaemenian Materiality

This paper explores the ways in which the materiality of the Achaemenian Empire was incorporated into the narratives of different polities and political groups on the Iranian Highlands. These approaches, which have continued into the present day, have marked these sites as objects of appropriation, imposition, resistance and negotiation by various actors in different discursive arenas. The current study further deals with the question of whether there was a biographical difference between distinct sites.

Difficult Heritage. The Experience of the Fossoli Camp Foundation

The historic site of Fossoli Camp is a unique stone witness which still bears the marks left by the central years of the twentieth century. During the Second World War it was a national camp for racial and political deportees, but its story extends to the 1970s when it was used to house civilian orphans and refugees. Today it is a place where history blends with experience and education. The primary goal of the Fossoli Foundation is the protection and preservation of the Camp’s heritage, together with its enhancement through activities including research, documentation, and education to promote cultural awareness. The Foundation focuses especially on close co-operation with schools, developing targeted educational projects and pathways for both students and teachers, with organised visits to its own memorial sites and other European ones. European projects and partnerships represent an increasing part of its activities, and the Foundation is now a member of several national and international networks.

Berlin Tempelhof: From Heritage Site to Creative Industry Hub?

Tempelhof Airport in Berlin mirrors the political, social and cultural developments in the capital and - broadly - in the whole country. Tempelhof has witnessed the heyday of the 1920s aviation, figured in the National Socialists’ power politics and acquired a reputable status in the course of the 1948/49 Berlin Airlift. During and after the Cold War, Tempelhof had been functioning as an airport, before it was closed down amidst protests in 2008. Today, the vast grassy airfield is open as a park, whilst various plans are being devised for the future usage of the former airport building. October 2018 marked the 10th anniversary since the air traffic had been discontinued. It is, therefore, an appropriate occasion to look at the Tempelhof case anew. This paper attempts to shed light on how the manifold history and symbolic value of Tempelhof Airport is – or is not – being reflected within the current usage of the site, as well as in various proposals for its future developments, and how the latter correspond to the unique atmosphere of this place. Tempelhof’s rich and unusual history re-emerges in virtually every decision about the future of the site: from the idea to turn the site into an encompassing ‘creative hub,’ to economic questions (making the building more accessible to the public, using the terminal hall and the apron for mass events, and the like), right to the opposition of large groups of locals to the Senate of Berlin’s politics.

La complessitá del reale e la sua immagine

Nato a Lucca nel 1981, Daniele si appassiona al disegno e all'arte già da bambino. Interrotto il cammino scolastico affascinato dalle sottoculture giovanili e dai codici suburbani si é dedicato allo studio ed alla pratica del tatuaggio, mestiere che ha praticato per 20 anni e che gli ha dato l’opportunitá di viaggiare in Europa e nel mondo per assorbire tutti gli stimoli e le ispirazioni possibili. La necessità di ampliare il suo raggio d’azione, esprimere concetti complessi attraverso la sua arte, trovare la strada della descrizione della realtà e dare vita ad un percorso artistico piú completo portano Daniele a calarsi sempre più spesso nei panni del pittore. Partendo dagli acquerelli, dal paesaggio al ritratto, ed approdato infine all'olio, la sua arte è una personale lettura della complessità del mondo.

Introduction. Difficult Heritage and Its Making

Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, along with other twentieth-century authoritarian regimes, have often attempted to create consensus through propagandistic reinterpretations of the classical past. As recent scholarship has shown, the Fascist appropriation of romanità and Nazi philhellenism were not only conditioned by earlier cultural conceptions but were also a key political tool in motivating and mobilising citizens to fulfil the aims of the fascist state (Roche, Bartolini & Schmaltz 2019). Once Fascism and Nazism had fallen, the material legacies of both regimes then became objects of destruction, reinterpretation and memory work. Thus, the archaeological and architectural heritage of these regimes, now tainted by their ideology, has not only suffered the consequences of damnatio memoriae in the aftermath of regime change, but continues even today to inflame contemporary public debate.

Costruire storie e raccontare produzioni

Prendendo le mosse dalle recenti acquisizioni dell’archeologia cognitiva, Michele Cometa, uno specialista di storia e teoria della letteratura, affronta in un corposo volume una questione fondamentale: la relazione fra produzione di utensili (i cicli produttivi), evoluzione del linguaggio, sviluppo di capacità narrative finalizzate a raccontare ‘storie’ utili. Una questione che, a mio avviso, non può riguardare soltanto gli specialisti della preistoria antica e dei processi di ominazione, perché ha molto a che vedere, in qualsiasi contesto preindustriale e prescientifico, con la trasmissione dei saperi tecnici (e, difatti, Cometa rinvia alle opere di A. Leroi-Gourhan), l’archeologia della produzione, la capacità di leggere in un manufatto la commistione di ‘funzione’ e ‘bellezza’ (o stile). Scopo del presente lavoro, oltre ad invitare a riflettere sulle tesi di Cometa a partire ovviamente dal libro, vi è ribadire, indipendentemente dai termini utilizzati e dalle partizioni disciplinari, l’utilità di studi archeologici in cui si fa storia della cultura materiale tenendo insieme la ricostruzione dei comportamenti (tecnici) e quella dei significati (sociali) anche grazie allo studio delle scelte ‘narrative’ adottate dagli antichi.

Foreword to Ex Novo Volume 5, 2020

The fifth volume of Ex Novo has the pleasure to host Flaminia Bartolini as guest editor for the special issue titled Heritage in the Making. Dealing with Legacies of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. This collection of peer-reviewed papers stems in part from the successful workshop held at McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge in December 2018 under the aegis of the DAAD-Cambridge Hub. The event gathered several international heritage experts and professionals from both Germany and Italy to explore the complexities of handling Heritage related to Fascism and National Socialism.

The Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg

The former Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg reflect politics and public debates in Germany between suppression, non-observance and direct reference to the National Socialist Past since 1945. Within this debate, various ways of dealing with the architectural heritage of the National Socialism exist. Those approaches are often contradictory. Since 1945 (and until today), the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds have been perceived as an important heritage. However, despite innumerable tourists visiting the area, parts of the buildings were removed and through ignoring the historic past of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, an everyday usage of the area was established. As of the public representation of the city, Nuremberg’s Nazi Past was played down and hidden. Simultaneously, considerable efforts were made to maintain and renovate areas of the Party Rally Grounds, partly out of a pragmatic manner as well as to document and educate about history. The special role Nuremberg played under National Socialism, led to a particularly prominent culture of remembrance (Erinnerungskultur). However, this isn’t the outcome of a simple success story coming from initial public suppression to a conscious examination of the National Socialist Past. It has been a rather contradictory non – linear process, continuing until today.

Edmondo Rossoni and Tresigallo

In the last 30 years, the town of Tresigallo has to come to terms with the legacy of its dissonant heritage. The rediscovery of its history happened gradually. It began in 1985 with the organization of conferences that encouraged a public debate about its founder Edmondo Rossoni, a minister during the fascist era, and the buildings he commissioned in Tresigallo. The town's historical and architectural value, in that its unique identity in relationship with a denied past, had to be first recognized at a community level. Public administration's take-over has not always granted the protection of these rationalist structures: some demolitions happened even in the early 2000s. Between late 1980s and 2000s, an increasing number of architects, local historians, photographers, and artists became interested in the town’s history due to its almost wholly preserved 1930s architectural and urban features. Restoration works and raising research on rationalist architecture have pointed out that the town should be considered a cultural asset to be preserved and valued. This paper examines some urban regeneration projects undertaken by the public administration, such as the former G.I.L. (Gioventù Italiana del Littorio) being converted into a public library and Public Baths made into an exhibition space. It also investigates the touristic and cultural development of the territory through the organization of cultural events and the use of social media.