What is “Day of Remembrance“? January 27, 1945 marked the demolition of the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Thus, as stated in Article 1 of the Law of July 20th 2000, n. 211, “The Italian Republic recognizes the 27th day of January, date of the gates of Auschwitz,” Day of Remembrance “in order to remember the Holocaust (extermination of the Jewish people), the racial laws, the persecution of Italian Jewish citizens , Italians who suffered deportation, imprisonment, death, and those who, even in different fields and camps, have opposed the project of extermination, and risked their lives to save more lives as well as protected the persecuted. “
On the occasion of the “Day of Remembrance 2019”, the Italian Cultural Institute is organizing a conference “Between monuments, fake news and counternarratives. Memory Practices and Anti-Fascism and Anti-Racism education” by Alessio Mazzaro.
Wednesday January 30,2019, 12:30pm-2pm
Université de Montréal
Département de sociologie, local C-5117
Pavillon Lionel-Groulx
3150,rue Jean Brillant
The conference will be given in French
Starting from two “elements”, on the one hand the statement that there will soon be no more Holocaust survivors to tell it, and on the other the importance given by Kristin Ross in relating to history through oral memory and subjectivity, ‘speech will discuss the failure of the monuments built to commemorate the Holocaust, and through the theories of Pierre Nora and contemporary art practice theoretical, the difference between history and memory, lack of spontaneous memory in recent years and its replacement by part of history by creating celebrations and archives. In addition, the speaker will focus on memory education as a means to counter the new fascism, presenting some recent Italian experiences of combating false online historians (Wikipedia tampering, photographic falsifications, fake news for false mythologies) and a certain “normalization” of fascism through television talk shows. Moving, then, from the fear in Europe of the migrant, Alessio Mazzaro will present how in recent years artists and cultural projects have decided to act on the present through the creation of a contronarrative of migration. Finally, the first and then the European experience of Edinost will be presented, an editorial project edited by Alessio Mazzaro himself.
Alessio Mazzaro is a visual Artist, director and histories researcher. He keeps moving and traveling towards social fabrics, tales and communities that he does not belong to, initiating processes of dialogue towards learning and acceptance. His practice is interdisciplinary as is his education and learning experiences. He graduated in Environmental Engineering (Bsc and Msc), studied Fine art and Theatre at IUAV University (BA), and performance in different workshops at important institutions as Biennale College Teatro (Venezia). Initially pursuing an international career as a performer working for BarokTheGreat and other companies. Afterwards, he deepened his practice in the public realm and audience engagement, being part of the project Art of the Mooc: Merging Public Art and Experimental Education by Pedro Lash and Nato Thompson (Duke University and CreativeTime). At this point he dedicated time to his practice and moved to Bristol, to experience the social practices wave in UK. Recently he relocated to Brussels interested in the Belgian performing arts scene. Interested in understanding how and what we can create together, he co-founded different collectives, S’odinonsuonare – Sound art and performance, the video broadcast project Couchscore, and Collettivo AAA – a collective investigating participatory and collaborative practices in public space. In recent years he was an assistant of Flaka Haliti at 56th Biennale d’Arte di Venezia and of Petrit Halilaj at the 55th (Kosovo Pavilion 2015, 2013), and a Learning activities Assistant at Arnolfini (Centre for Contemporary Art in Bristol, UK). Bringing forward his investigation on testimony and participation, his “experiences” have become day-long performances and transient projects, evolving and improving with participants feedback during the time. In the recents years, he focused on questioning the conditions of becoming a collective, challenging ideologies and perceptions, and empowering audience agency.