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“Italiani di chiese e processioni a Montréal”: an upcoming foto book (#IICMONTREALWEBINARSERIES)

The Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal, as part of the XXVII edition of the Italian Week of Montreal (August 7 to August 23 2020), an event planned and organized by the National Congress of Italian-Canadians, is pleased to present a preview of the editorial project entitled “Italiani di chiese e processioni a Montréal“, conceived by the Italian Cultural Institute and with the collaboration of the Chiesa Cattolica Madre dei Cristiani, led by Father Giuseppe Fugolo of the Congregation of the Missionaries of S. Carlo Borromeo o Scalabriniani. The photographic book, accompanied by texts by Claudio Antonelli, Francesco D’Arelli, Guglielmo D’Onofrio, Giuseppe Fugolo, Valentina Gaddi, Gabriele Giannini, Andrea Paolella (also author of the photos), Massimo Rossi, Filippo Salvatore and Matteo Soranzo, will be published by Guernica Editions. Connie Guzzo McParland, President of Guernica Editions, C. Antonelli, writer and journalist, F. D’Arelli, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, and A. Paolella, scientist and photographer, will all intervene at the presentation.

Tuesday August 11 2020, 5:30pm EST

Registration obligatory

The Italian presence in Montreal is numerous and boasts an antiquity of over a century. There are some hundreds of thousands of Italians and at least ten churches, where parish priests often officiate mass in Italian. The churches were built with the effort of emigrants at the turn of the twenties and seventies of the last century and bear our own names, such as the Consolata, the Madonna del Divino Amore, the Madonna della Difesa, Madonna di Pompei, San Giovanni Bosco. The churches are enriched with statues, ex voto and works of art sent from Italy. “Italiani di chiese e processioni a Montréal” is a photographic project intended first of all to witness some daily moments of the religious life of the Italian community in Montréal, a community that meets on Sundays, who parades in procession through the streets of the city, which embellishes the churches of Italian works: ultimately, an increasingly feeble world which, in time, expresses one of the unmistakable faces of Italy in the world.

Claudio Antonelli, born in Pazin (Istria) and spent his youth in Naples, now lives in Montreal. He holds a degree in Law from the ‘Federico II’ University of Naples and from the University of Montreal; a master’s degree in Librarianship from the University of Montreal and a PhD in Italian literature from McGill University in Montreal. Writer, journalist and refined observer of the inseparable links between the homeland and the identity of the individual, he has published articles, essays, books … on expatriate communities, the uprooting, the exodus of the Giuliani, the prejudices on Italian emigrants, the myth America, the Italian language … Among its numerous publications, the most noteworthy are: Espatrio, fedeltà, identità. Omaggio all’Istria e al Canada (Edarc, 2007), Pavese, Vittorini e gli americanisti. Il mito dell’America (Edarc, 2008), Elio Vittorini: sempre contemporaneo (Edarc, 2011), L’Italiano lingua “in tilt” (Edarc, 2014) e da ultimo Cari Italians… Le mie lettere a BSev (Edarc, 2017).. In 2003, he received the title of “Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella della solidarietà italiana” from the President of the Italian Republic for having “carried out constant support over the years to the Italian language and culture of Québec”.

President and co-director of Guernica Editions, Connie Guzzo McParland holds a BA in Italian Literature and a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University. In 2017, she received the David McKeen Award for creative writing for her thesis-novel, Girotondo. In 2005, an excerpt from this novel, Verso Halifax, won second prize of the Premio Letterario Cosseria in Cosseria, Italy. Her novel The Girls of Piazza d’Amore (Linda Leith Publishing, 2013) was shortlisted for the Concordia First Novel Award by the Quebec Writer’s Federation. Her second novel, The Women of Saturn was published in 2017 by Inanna Publications and will be published in Italian by Rubbettino Editore.

Andrea Paolella was born in Reggio Emilia in 1984. In 2008 he graduated in chemistry at the University of Bologna and in 2013 he received a doctorate in nanoscience at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa. After a post doctorate at McGill University (Montreal), he is currently a researcher in the development of new materials in the Department of Storage and Energy Conversion at the Energy Institute Recherche Quebec (IREQ) of HydroQuebec. Among his most recent publications, as photographer, are: Senza Oriente Nessun Occidente (Comune de Reggio Emilia, 2008), Questi Qui (CGIL Reggio Emilia, Silvana Editoriale, 2009), I luoghi di Pasolini (Centre d’études P.P. Pasolini, Silvana Editoriale, 2010), La strage dei trent’anni (Associazione 2 Agosto 1980, Clueb 2010), L’Emiliano Postmoderno. In viaggio con P.V. Tondelli (PostCart 2013).

  • Organized by: Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Montréal
  • In collaboration with: Chiesa Cattolica Madre dei Cristiani
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