SPAZIDENTITÀ: The Material and Immaterial Spatiality of Italianness from the Cisalpine Republic to Fascism: Territories, Cities, Architectures, Museums

This project brings together historians of political and cultural thought, law, and architecture and art, documenting the progressive establishment of a material and immaterial spatiality of Italian identity across the timespan stretching from the birth of the Cisalpine Republic to the end of Fascism, with particular attention to the period of the Restorations. Several case studies have been selected: Milan, Turin, Florence, Rome, Naples, Palermo, and Trieste, as well as “frontier” spaces such as the Canton of Ticino, Dalmatia, the southern Mediterranean, Trentino–South Tyrol, and the northeastern Alpine border. The project will serve as a transdisciplinary and transnational laboratory open to future developments, and it proposes to examine (1) a material spatiality encompassing frontier lands, urban spaces, architectures, monuments, museums, civic and patriotic collections, private collections open to the public, and exhibitions; and (2) the immaterial spatiality created by narratives, cultural and political debates, and social practices.

The project has been awarded funding under a five-year Programme Structurant in partnership with the École Française de Rome (2022–2026). Thematic area: Création, Patrimoine, Mémoire.

Project leads: Letizia Tedeschi (Università della Svizzera Italiana), Catherine Brice (Université Paris-Est Créteil), Miriam Failla (Università degli Studi di Torino).

Find the complete project overview here.