Università Roma Tre

GENIUS LOCI. ART AND ITALIAN IDENTITY

Over the course of the 20th century, Italy sought its own cultural center of gravity: an identity capable of solving its relation to a modernity perceived by many—in schizophrenic fashion—both as a disruptive force, and as an indispensable element of any self-definition. Reference to a cultural heritage that is as incomparable as it is unsteady and contradictory has sometimes condensed around the notion of genius loci, a concept which has come to represent, especially in the visual arts field, a kind of fantastical answer to questions about the identity of Italian art. This book reconstructs a genealogy of the genius loci, connecting moments of Italian history, from the post-unification creation of a national art history to Fascism, from the Eighties to the present day. It provides both a reliable account and a critical reading of the fortunes of this idea. At stake in this non-linear genealogy of discourses, memories, and imaginings is the cultural and inevitably political self-recognition of contemporary Italy.

Stefano Chiodi, Genius Loci. Anatomia di un mito italiano, Quodlibet, Macerata 2021