L’arte contemporanea di fronte al colonialismo italiano in Libia, tra autobiografia, memoria e critica postcoloniale

Abstract

Apparently less striking than the war in Ethiopia, the Italian colonial experience in Libya lends itself to monitoring in the present the variations in the historical and ethical awareness of those events and their repercussions today. Starting with a few examples from the 1980s and the 21st century, the text identifies different critical postures and perspectives, advancing the hypothesis of a possible re-reading in this key of works that have never before been considered from this point of view. In particular, a comparison between the recent works of Patrizio Di Massimo – in dialogue with the generation of the Scuola di Piazza del Popolo – Martina Melilli and Alessandra Ferrini reveals a rich range of nuances in the handling of such difficult memories that, far from being inert archive documents, reveal themselves in the variable forms of living witnesses, reclaimed inheritances, violence and current rhetoric.