Memory Matters

The project offers a reflection on collective memory in public spaces through an exhibition project spread out around Parco del Valentino, and a series of meetings as part of the programme of the 2021 Biennale Democrazia. The history of Parco del Valentino, and the symbols and monuments that inhabit it to this day, are the subject of an investigation carried out by four art interventions, specifically commissioned to artists Leone Contini, Alessandra Ferrini, Muna Mussie, and Adji Dieye in collaboration with Silvia Rosi. The park, which has been hosting international and national exhibitions since 1884, is here analysed from different perspectives as a historic and symbolic space that produced a national identity narrative, in close connection with Italy’s colonial past. The project addresses the theme of monumentality and permanence, and it questions the space of construction and conservation of public memory by introducing aspects related to the invisible and the temporary.

The curatorial project was developed by Biennale Democrazia and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in collaboration with Black History Month Florence, an institutional network committed to promoting and producing research and content dedicated to Blackness in Italy. Memory Matters is part of Verso, a programme created and realised by Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo with the Department for Youth Policy of the Piedmont Region as part of the National Fund for Youth Policy.