25 September 2008 – 30 November 2008

fascismo abbandonato

an artwork by dan dubowitz and patrick duerden.

since 2005 dan dubowitz and patrick duerden have been tracking down fascist buildings in northern italy.

jumping fences and exploring dense and over grown forests they have discovered huge and sublime modern ruins, the remains of holiday camps for the vast fascist youth programme, and what started as a series of road trips across italy has became an extraordinary exploration of the archaeology of the present.

fascismo abbandonato (or fascism in ruins) is the result. it takes the form of an artwork recording the extraordinary forgotten monuments that dubowitz and duerden discovered on the tuscan and emilio-romanian coasts between 2005 and 2008.

marching blackshirts and monumental architecture were the symbols of italian progress towards modernity under mussolini’s regime (1922-1943). fascist youth organisations were important architectural patrons, and the modernist camp buildings (colonie) built for the fascistisation of children were amongst the most progressive and admired of the regime’s achievements when they were built. the colonie were of immense international propaganda value to the regime, but unlike the railway system of which the fascists was equally proud their raison d’être disappeared after the defeat of mussolini in 1945, and most ceased to be used.

today the status of the colonie as architectural achievements of international importance is hardly acknowledged; their meanings are inextricably bound up with the nightmare of fascism. a collection of extraordinary ruins is the consequence of their abandonment to the vicissitudes of time and decay.

dubowitz and duerden’s portrait of these monuments is presented as 20 large photographic prints accompanied by a commentary on the dialogue that developed on the course of their journey. it has particular resonance at the beginning of this century, when liberal democracy again feels itself to be threatened on all sides, not least in italy where populism has dominated politics in recent decades.

Address

Architekturgalerie am Weißenhof
Am Weißenhof 30
70191 Stuttgart
phone +49 711 257 14 34
http://www.weissenhofgalerie.de

Opening Hours

Tuesday-Saturday 2 p.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. - 5 p.m., closed on Monday.

Description of the Museum

The Architekturgalerie am Weißenhof accompanies the development of contemporanean architecture and town planing between technology, fine arts and sociology.

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