In collaboration with the McGill University, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures – Italian Studies, the Italian Cultural Institute of Montréal presents: Re-examining the Long “1950s”: The (Un)Making of the Contemporary Italian Cultural Identity, 7.
The objective of the project is to lay the foundation for a reinterpretation of the “long 1950s” as a key phase in the elaboration of the cultural erasures, marginalizations and distortions which constitute the unacknowledged but fundamental underside of contemporary Italian identity. Bringing this underside to light has ethical and political, as well as cultural implications: a deeper and more complex understanding of post-WW II Italy is an essential step in developing a fresh insight into some long-standing and frustrating impasses in contemporary Italian society with respect to issues of class, gender, religious and political ideology, etc.
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Re-examining the Long “1950s”: The (Un)Making of the Contemporary Italian Cultural Identity, 7: “Spaces of Modernity: Domesticity Reinvented in 1950s Italian Architecture” by Paolo Scrivano, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China
The theme of Scrivano’s presentation is the evolution of domestic space in Italian architecture of the 1950s. Scrivano will begin by discussing how, in the post-World War II period, Italian architects played a leading role internationally in redefining the very meaning and compass of the term architecture. In the 1950s “Italian design” becomes an international phenomenon driven by technological advances but also by a profession which, in spite of its proven know-how and theoretical sophistication, was not allowed in Italy to play a significant role in urban planning and development, and therefore had to find different spaces in which to intervene. One of these different spaces was domesticity which was rearticulated in order to meet modern needs and values. This new domestic spaces bear witness to the creative energy of Italian architecture and are a stinging indictment of the savage urbanization characteristic of the Italian 1950s.
McGill University, Wendy Patrick Room, Wilson Hall, 3506 University Street, Tuesday February 7, 2017 – 5:00 pm Presentation will be in English – Free admission
Paolo Scrivano is an innovative historian of architecture with a special interest in comparing architectural developments in different national context. He obtained a PhD degree in architectural history from the Politecnico di Torino. He then taught at the Politecnico di Milano, the University of Toronto, and Boston University, and is currently Associate Professor of History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. He has received grants and fellowships from international institutions, such as the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Australian Research Council, and the French National Research Agency. His publications focus on post-WW II Italian architecture and he is currently completing a book on “Modern Architecture as a Transnational Discourse.” He is suited to speak on the changes in architectural in the 1950s.
For further information: https://thelongfifties.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/architectural-theory-and-practice-in-1950s-italy/