Fascist Modernism in Italy: Arts and Regimes

Description

Between 1917 to 1975 Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Soviet Union, and Spain shifted from liberal parliamentary democracies to authoritarian and totalitarian dictatorships, seeking total control, mass consensus, and the constitution of a ‘new man/woman’ as the foundation of a modern collective social identity. As they did so these regimes uniformly adopted what we would call a modernist aesthetic – huge-scale experiments in modernism were funded and supported by fascist and totalitarian dictators. Famous examples include Mussolini’s New Rome at EUR, or the Stalinist apartment blocks built in urban Russia. Focusing largely on Mussolini’s Italy, Francesca Billiani argues that modernity was intertwined irrecoverably with fascism – that too often modernist buildings, art and writings are seen as a purely cultural output, when in fact the principles of modernist aesthetics constitute and are constituted by the principles of fascism. The obsession with the creation of the ‘new man’ in art and in reality shows this synergy at work. This book is a key contribution to the field of twentieth century history – particularly in the study of fascism, while also appealing to students of art history and philosophy. Cover Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Prologue Parode Autonomy and Heteronomy: Regimes Modern Subjectivities: Liberalism vs Fascism Historicizing Spectacles Agons A Note on Sources Agon 1: Realism and Fascist State Art Dissonances: Geographies Synthesis: State of the Art Hypothesis I: Realism at the Boundaries of Collective Subjectivities Fusions I: Towards a New State Art Fusions II: The Peripheries, the Futurists et al. Theatre of Objects I: Realisms + Avant-gardes Fusions III: Building the Modern Novel Theatre of Objects II: To Carla, Michele and All the Others Theatre of Objects III: The Boundaries of Realism: Constructing a Collective Subjectivity? Theatre of Objects IV: Embodied Modern Subjects Agon 2: The Fascist New Man/Woman and the Bourgeois Ulysses Synthesis: What is Public Art? Dissonances: Heads of Mussolini Hypothesis I: The Total Work of Art Fusions I: Spaces of, and for, Public Art Hypothesis II: Monumentalism: Visualizing Subjectivity and Objectivity Fusions II: Visualizing Visions, 1933 V Triennale Fusions III: Visualizing Visions, 1936 VI Triennale and X Biennale Theatre of Objects I: Mail and Rails Theatre of Objects II: E42 Hypothesis II: The Reality of the New Man/Woman Agon 3: Architecture and the Arts in the Public Domain Synthesis: Arte di Stato and the Art of Building Fusions I: Architectural Functions, 1923–36 Theatre of Objects I: The Novocomum Fusions II: Towards a New State Art: From Milan to Rome via Turin Theatre of Objects II: Case Brutte, Case Economiche, Case Tipo Theatre of Objects III: Rationalist Villas Theatre of Objects IV: Case Minime, Case Popolari Theatre of Objects V: New and Old Towns: Urban Planning Agon 4: Art and Construction: The Avant-gardes Dissonances: Photodynamism Synthesis I: Autonomy and Heteronomy Synthesis II: The Relationship between Modernity and Modernization as a Dialectical Project Fusions I: Futurisms and Their Politics Hypothesis I: Linee Hypothesis II: Universo Meccanico Fusions II: The Machine of Exhibitions: 1924–30 Theatre of Objects: Analogie Cosmiche Fusions III: The Machine of Exhibitions: 1932–3 Fusions IV: Abstracticism Agon 5: Aerofuturism: Journeys and Explorations Prepare for Take-off Suspended in the Air Prepare for Landing Towards an Aesthetic of War, 1934–44 Exodus Bibliography Index