mare/Inhabited Dissonance: Bozen Bolzano 1922-2025
Inhabited Dissonance: Bozen Bolzano 1922–2025 is an interdisciplinary analysis of the city of Bolzano developed within the research project Curating Bolzano Fascist Legacies. A Sustainable Approach to a City’s Dissonant Heritage (2022–2025) at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bozen–Bolzano. Within this framework, Lungomare supports the process leading to the realisation of the project von Jetztzeit erfüllt (filled by the presence of the now) by artist Eduard Freudmann.
The research retraces the histories and interrogates the afterlives of Fascist-era architectural remnants that continue to permeate the city’s public spaces. By examining how these structures persist, are reactivated, or become invisible over time, the project reflects on the unresolved presence of Fascism within the contemporary urban fabric.
Within this context, a curatorial team forms, composed of Angelika Burtscher, Daniele Lupo, Roberto Gigliotti, Elisabetta Rattalino, and Lisa Mazza. The team coordinates three site-specific artistic projects by Eduard Freudmann (Vienna), Stefano Graziani (Trieste), and Ela Spalding (Berlin/Mallorca and Panama), each critically engaging with the material and symbolic dimensions of place.
Invited by Lungomare, Eduard Freudmann develops artistic projects centred on commemoration and historical inquiry, with a particular focus on public space and its performative potential. His practice is grounded in transdisciplinary methodologies, artistic research, and critical discourse, intertwining contemporary aesthetics with political analysis. Through this approach, Freudmann activates processes of critical reflection while questioning both his own position and that of the viewer.
For Inhabited Dissonance, Freudmann conceives an artistic intervention addressing the façade inscriptions of the INPS building in Victory Square. Due to the Province of Bolzano’s decision not to grant the necessary permit, the intervention cannot take place on site. The inscriptions are therefore presented within the exhibition space of the Galleria Civica.
Seminar - Inhabited Dissonance. Bozen-Bolzano 1922-2024
The seminar Inhabited Dissonance. Bozen–Bolzano 1922–2024 promotes critical approaches to the study and resignification of fascist architectural and environmental traces in Italy, focusing on issues relevant to the city of Bozen–Bolzano. Each meeting brings together a scholar and an artist, encouraging dialogue between historical research and artistic methodologies.
This interdisciplinary approach fosters exchanges between experts working with material and visual traces preserved in archives, museum collections, and public spaces, and artists whose practices engage with these contexts. The seminar develops new critical perspectives and interventions that aim to communicate, understand, and re-signify difficult and controversial monuments and moments in history.
On Fascism, Nature and Soil
5 June 2024
This event focuses on the ideology of nature, with Dr. Roberta Biasillo (Utrecht University), environmental historian and author of Storia ambientale delle paludi pontine (Viella, 2023), and the artist Ela Spalding. Spalding develops an artistic methodology (SUELO) centered on the concept, metaphor and materiality of soil.
Monuments and public space
6 June 2024
This seminar explores the relationship between monuments and public space. Starting from the reflections of her latest edited book (A Difficult Heritage. The After Life of Fascist-Era Art and Architecture, 2023), the art historian Dr. Belmonte (University of Roma Tre / Bibliotheca Hertziana) addresses the traces of Italian colonialism and practices of resignification. Viennese artist Eduard Freudmann discusses participatory artistic interventions dedicated to controversial monuments.
Ancient Simulacra and Conflicts of Memory: Fascism and History
7 June 2024
This session investigates the relationship between historical narrative, political mythology and monuments, through a presentation by historian of fascism Dr. Paola Salvatori (Scuola Normale Superiore), who is the editor of the volume Il fascismo e la storia (Edizioni della Normale, 2022). Dr Salvatori enters into dialogue with artist Stefano Graziani, known for his photographic research at the intersection between architecture and archives.
Exhibition - Inhabited Dissonance. Bozen-Bolzano, 1922-2025
10 October 2025 – 23 November 2025
Opening: 9 October 2025, 7:00 pm, within the framework of BAW – Bolzano Art Weeks
Galleria Civica
Inhabited Dissonance. Bozen–Bolzano 1922–2025 presents the outcomes of an interdisciplinary research project developed by the Faculty of Design and Arts at the Free University of Bozen–Bolzano. Coordinated by Prof. Roberto Gigliotti in collaboration with Elisabetta Rattalino, Andrea Di Michele, and Waltraud Kofler Engl, the project involves contributions from Lungomare, BAU, and Gianluca Camillini.
The exhibition recontextualises the traces of Fascist history in Bolzano by bringing them into dialogue with the present. Through art-historical research, artistic practices, and exhibition methodologies, the project critically addresses the complexity of this urban legacy and its enduring visible manifestations.
Book - Inhabited Dissonance. Bozen-Bolzano, 1922-2025
Inhabited Dissonance: Bozen Bolzano 1922–2025, edited by Roberto Gigliotti and Elisabetta Rattalino, brings together contributions by historians, art historians, architects, designers, and researchers including Roberta Biasillo, Gianluca Camillini, Aaron Ceolan, Pietro Coda, Andrea Di Michele, Roberto Gigliotti, Waltraud Kofler Engl, Gaia Piccarolo, Elisabetta Rattalino, and Paola S. Salvatori. The publication also features conversations with artists Eduard Freudmann, Stefano Graziani, and Ela Spalding, as well as curators Angelika Burtscher, Daniele Lupo, and Lisa Mazza.
Published by bruno
Year
2023–2025