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‘Un'arte ancora in embrione’: international expositions, empire, and the evolution of Fascist architectural design
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2020
Abstract
This article reconsiders the development of Fascist architecture throughout the late interwar period. It pays especial attention to the structures erected for the most significant international expositions held, or planned to be held, between 1933 and 1942, in order to identify significant trends in Party-sponsored design. It argues that the ‘dynamism’ of Fascist design was a consequence of the regime's preference for an increasingly imperial tone which developed in direct proportion to its increasingly imperial identity. It points to Piacentini and Pagano's Italian Pavilion built for the 1937 Paris Exposition, the first national pavilion constructed following the May 1936 proclamation of empire, as a significant flashpoint in the tension between Fascist interpretations of modern and classical design. This article concludes that the often-overlooked world's fair buildings can be viewed as crystalline distillations of the stylistic experimentation which defined the broader Fascist building programme both in Italy and abroad.
Questo articolo riconsidera lo sviluppo dell'architettura fascista durante alla fine del periodo fra le due guerre. Pone particolare attenzione sulle strutture erette in occasione delle più importanti esposizioni internazionali tenute, o pianificate, fra il 1933 ed il 1942, con l'intento di identificare tendenze significative nella progettazione promossa dal Partito. Argomenta che il “dinamismo” dell'architettura fascista era una conseguenza della preferenza del regime per un sempre maggiore tono imperiale che si sviluppò in modo direttamente proporzionale alla sua crescente identità imperiale. Indica il Padiglione italiano di Piacentini e Pagano costruito per l'Esposizione di Parigi del 1937, il primo padiglione nazionale costruito in seguito alla dichiarazione dell'impero nel maggio del 1936, come un significativo punto di rottura nella tensione tra le interpretazioni fasciste della progettazione classica e moderna. Questo articolo conclude che le costruzioni delle fiere internazionali, spesso sottovalutate, possono essere viste come distillati cristallini di sperimentazione stilistica che definiscono il più ampio programma di edificazione fascista, sia in Italia sia all'estero.
- Type
- Special Issue
- Information
- Modern Italy , Volume 25 , Special Issue 4: Italians Beyond Italy/Italy Beyond Italians: Transnational Cultural Strategies and the Construction of Identities , November 2020 , pp. 455 - 476
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy
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