Città in mostra. Parma 1870, immagine debole di un potere in crisi

• Main Author: Vanja Strukelj
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Università di Parma 2010-01-01
• Series: Ricerche di S/Confine
• Subjects: Esposizione Nazionale d’Arti Belle1870; Correggio; Accademia di Parma; Guide; I Congresso artistico Italiano
• Online Access: http://www.ricerchedisconfine.info/1/STRUKELJ.htm

In 1870 in Parma there were a series of cultural manifestations which would attract the attention of thenation to the town. Besides the inauguration of the Correggio monument, there was the “Primo Congresso Artistico Italiano” and the “Esposizione d’Arti Belle”, and also an “Esposizione Provinciale Industriale e Agricola”. The ex petite capitale had the chance to reaffirm, in the new Unitarian context, its historical and cultural identity, of which the artistic tradition became an important element. Pietro Martini, the Academy’s secretary, was the creator and director of the project which envisaged these enterprises as opportunities for raising the profile of an institution which was passing through a crisis. This article wishes to show the complexity and ambitious scope of a project which was, at the sametime to represent a national model, but also the inadequacy of a promotional system which, withoutusing the instruments of modern communication and, in particular, images, would lower the impact, even symbolic, of the initiative itself.