MEMORIAL SITES IN POST-FASCIST SOUTHERN EUROPE.

With Francesco Mazzucchelli, Mario Panico, Zoé de Kerangat, Maria C. Puche-Ruiz, María José Romero-Ternero, Pilar Díaz-Cuevas & Alfonso Fernández-Tabales. For the BIRMAC cycle of seminars MEMORIAL SITES. ACTS OF REMEMBERING THROUGH MEDIA AND VISUAL CULTURE.

  • Date: 15 JUNE 2023  from 16:00 to 18:30

  • Event location: Online event

 

Case studies II: Memorial Sites in Post-fascist Southern Europe

Thursday 15 June, 3-5.30pm UK time

Discussant: Mari-Paz Balibrea (CILAVS, Birkbeck, University of London)

 

THE SEMIOTIC LIVES OF DIFFICULT HERITAGE. VISUAL RE-ENUNCIATIONS OF FASCIST ARCHITECTURE BETWEEN POLITICAL MOBILISATION AND POP CULTURE REPRESENTATIONS

Francesco Mazzucchelli (TraMe – Center for the Semiotic Study of Memory, University of Bologna) & Mario Panico, member of TRAME

Abstract

In Italy, Fascism has left a strong imprint in public space, that is still visible today. Mussolini considered architecture as a powerful medium for spreading Fascist ideology and conforming people’s minds to its political doctrine. In recent years, extensive literature, based in part on Macdonald’s studies of “difficult heritage”, has addressed the changing attitudes toward this “material legacy” and the various solutions (or lack thereof) for dealing with this kind of uncomfortable legacy in Italy. In this paper we look at this issue from a different perspective: to us, the problem is not “Why are there still so many fascist monuments in Italy?” (to take up historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s question, used as the title of a controversial column in the New Yorker in 2017), but “What are the meanings of fascist architecture today, and how has its perception changed over time?”. Therefore, we will trace the semantic transformation processes of some emblematic instances of “difficult fascist heritage” by examining a handful of examples of their “visual re-mediation” (and re-enunciation) in Italian popular culture. In particular, we focus on what is generally considered as the main symbol of Italian fascist heritage in Italy, namely the architecture known as Colosseo Quadrato, i.e. the Palazzo della Civiltà, located in the EUR in Rome (the neighborhood Mussolini had constructed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of fascism in Italy). Through an analysis of the different “semiotic lives” of this architecture in films, mass media, advertisements and artistic interventions, we show how the semantic potential of this “fascist sign” evolves and, above all, consists of different overlapping (and sometimes contradictory) layers of meaning and perspectives on the same object.

Bios

Francesco Mazzucchelli is Associate Professor of Semiotics at the University of Bologna. He coordinates TraMe, Research Center for the Semiotic Study of Memory and is Vice-President of AISS, Italian Association for Semiotic Studies. His current research deals with on the narrative and discursive dimensions of cultural heritage and the processes of construction/transmission of collective memory from a semiotic perspective, with a particular focus on difficult/dissonant heritage (in Italy but not only). https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/francesco.mazzucchelli/en

Mario Panico is postdoctoral fellow at the University of Amsterdam and research secretary of TraMe at the University of Bologna. He is a semiotician who deals with issues related to cultural heritage, memory space, nostalgia and representations of perpetrators in trauma sites and museums. He is currently working on a research project entitled "Perpetrators' Heritage. Material Cultures and Imaginaries" which investigates the strategies of preservation and resemantisation of sites associated with the daily lives of perpetrators during WWII and the Argentinian military dictatorship https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/p/a/m.panico/m.panico.html?origin=tAmm2lssS1a%2BG5r067Pg oA

 

REMEMBERING THE MEMORY MAKERS: THE MUJERES DE NEGRO EXHIBITED IN THE PUBLIC SPACE

Zoé de Kerangat (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

 

Abstract

In 1936 in La Barranca (La Rioja, Spain), the bodies of approximately 400 people killed by the Francoist repression of the Spanish Civil War were buried in three ditches without marking. Thanks to the Mujeres de Negro or Women in Black, who confronted and defied the authority in order to pay tribute to their dead, La Barranca became a site of memory during the Francoist dictatorship. In this paper, I look into the different images and representations of the Mujeres de Negro and their exhibition in different settings. First, I examine the implications of the exhibition “Mujeres de Negro” in different places outside La Barranca with 64 photographs of the women. I also analyze the presence of one replica of the statues of two Mujeres de Negro in the exhibition “El Tragaluz Democrático” held in Madrid and commissioned by the State Secretary for Democratic Memory. These representations are particularly interesting to consider as they pay a tribute to these women at different levels, as a kind of memory of memory practice from different positions, be it local associations or state institutions.

Bio

Zoé de Kerangat (PhD, 2020) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Contemporary History Department of the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Madrid, Spain). Her PhD dissertation analyzes the exhumations of the remains of the victims of Francoist repression in the 1970s and 1980s in Spain. She is a member of the R&D project “NECROPOL: Más allá del Subtierro: del giro forense a la necropolítica en las exhumaciones de fosas comunes de la guerra civil”. Her book “Remover cielo y tierra” will be published in 2023. She co-authored the article “The limits of remembrance during the Spanish Transition: Questioning the ‘Pact of Oblivion’ through the analysis of a censored film and a mass-grave exhumation” (Memory Studies, 2020).

 

DEMOCRATIC VISIONS FOR A CONFLICTIVE HERITAGE. THE CINEMATIC "COUNTER-MEMORY" OF THE VALLEY OF THE FALLEN (1978-2016)'

María José Romero-Ternero & Maria C. Puche-Ruiz (Universidad de Sevilla)

 

Abstract

This paper focuses on the understanding of a "space of memory" such as the Valley of the Fallen through the nine films in which it appears. To this end, a methodology has been designed to analyse its symbolism, staging and representation during the democratic period using NVivo software. The results corroborate the existence of a cinematographic "counter-memory" that is nourished by the subversive narrative surrounding the monument and that can help future generations to know not only how it has affected their present, but also how to coexist with it in the future.

Bios

María José Romero-Ternero
University of Seville mromero32@us.es
Orcid: 0000-0001-5383-1973 M.J. Romero Ternero is an independent collaborator (researcher), PhD in Tourism and Anthropology with International Mention in collaboration with York St. John University. She is a member of the HAVRC (Heritage and Arts Visitor Research Collaborative) Steering Group at York St. John University (UK) and the emerging research group TIC-247 (SICA) ASTERISM (Art Science Technology Engineering Research: Innovation, Synergies and Methodologies) at the University of Seville. M.J. Romero Ternero has focused her research interests on Mediation Strategies and Transdisciplinarity from an ethnographic perspective.

Maria C. Puche-Ruiz University of Seville mpuche@us.es
Orcid: 0000-0003-3689-0183 Maria C. Puche-Ruiz received her PhD in Geography from the University of Seville (2019), where she was a Predoctoral Fellow (2014-2018), after having obtained a University Teacher Training Grant by the Spanish Government. She was awarded the prestigious Best Thesis Award in Humanities ("Tourism and Territorial Identity. Cinema as a tool for the analysis of Tourism in Andalusia [1905-1975]" by the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain (2020) and is now on a postdoctoral fellowship supported by the Andalusian Regional Government. She is a member of the research group "Territorial and Tourist Studies" (University of Seville), and is part of the international R&D group "CITur" ("Cinema, Imaginary and Tourism", University of Valencia). Since 2018, Maria is part of the team of several projects highlighting the relationship between tourism and cinema and actively participates in the international editorial project "Vi@ Tourism Review", carried out by EA 7337 EIREST (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), where she was a visiting fellow during the period 07/2021-12/2021.

 

IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS OF SITES OF MEMORY IN SEVILLE (SPAIN). DISSEMINATION AND HERITAGE INTERPRETATION STRATEGIES

Maria C. Puche-Ruiz, Pilar Díaz Cuevas & Alfonso Fernández Tabales (Universidad de Sevilla)

 

Abstract

This work aims to focus on the sites of memory of Seville (Spain) and give them visibility within the framework of the new Law of Democratic Memory (2022). To this end, up to 60 significant places have been identified from various sources and, subsequently, characterised and classified typologically. It should be noted that the main objective of this project is to disseminate those spaces that marked the beginning of the Civil War and the Post-war period, making citizens aware that the siege of Seville was not as easy as a parade, as it was usually communicated in the past. For this reason, it is considered necessary to use eminently visual applications (geocaching, wikiloc, storymaps) so that citizens rediscover the sites of memory of Seville and incorporate them into the symbolic imaginary through the interpretation of heritage, the innovative education of students and the rigorous narration of historical events.

Bios

Pilar Díaz-Cuevas University of Seville pilard@us.es
Orcid: 0000-0003-0846-9930 D. in Geography, full university professor, she is a member of the research group Territorial and Tourism Studies. Her lines of research are linked to the management of spatial data, through the use of Territorial Information Technologies -relational spatial databases, spatial data models, Geographic Information Systems, Geostatistics, among others- with various applications to highlight: Tourism and analysis of the impacts of climate change; Analysis of territorial potentialities for the implementation of renewable energies; Management and analysis of large spatial databases (Cadastre, Longitudinal Register of the Andalusian Population, others); Design and development of web geovisors and other tools for the visualisation and consultation of geographic information and territorial indicators.

Alfonso Fernández Tabales University of Seville aftabales@us.es
Orcid: 0000-0003-3330-2286 He obtained in the competitive process held on 7/11/2017 at the University of Seville the position of Professor. Currently Director of the PhD Programme in Geography at the University of Seville. Alfonso Fernández Tabales has focused his professional and academic career on the relationships between territory and development processes at local and regional scale, and especially in recent years on the problems associated with increasing urbanisation and land occupation. He is currently principal investigator of the research project entitled "Spatial impacts of touristification in urban areas. New digital tools for diagnosis and management", Ministry of Science and Research.