11 agosto 1944 / 11 agosto 2024

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Florence's liberation from Nazi-Fascism, the artists' residence in Via Senese is hosting a series of conversations to celebrate this important date with music, historical, and artistic reflections. The event represents an opportunity to reconnect with the complex legacy of the historic Florentine artists' house, opening our archives and trying to highlight the ambiguities of our history as a German institution since 1905. Despite the threatening influence of nazism over the administration of Villa Romana, which, under the leadership of Hans Purrmann and in the period after the liberation, offered refuge to “degenerate” artists and anti-fascists. In collaboration with ANPI Oltrarno, Villa Romana also makes the atlas of Nazi-Fascist massacres available to the residents of the house, the supporters and the audience. The artist Theophilus Imani presents his contribution to the project ‘Troubling the Villa Romana Library’ and his curated selection of new books on the history of Italian colonialism acquired on behalf of the institution.

PROGRAMME

6:30pm: Introduction and welcome by the Villa Romana team: Elena Agudio, Mistura Allison, and Claudia Fromm. Reading from Hanna Kiel’s Die Schlacht um den Hügel. Eine Chronik aus Fiesole im August 1944 (Eng. The battle for the hill. A chronicle from Fiesole during August 1944)

7pm: Villa Romana, 11 August 2024. Weaving the threads of memory so as not to forget: the Villa Romana archive and the years of Nazi-Fascism

Villa Romana pays homage to the day of Florence's liberation from the Nazi-Fascist regime on 11 August, the day of the heroic ‘Battle of Florence’, by drawing attention to the history and memory of a number of personalities who fought against the cruelties of dictatorship. Through the presentation of a selection of documents from the Villa Romana Archives, Alyssa Magnifico from the Carlo Bo University of Urbino in conversation with Professor Carlotta Castellani, will retrace the human vicissitudes of some Italian and German personalities who lived in or gravitate around Villa Romana during the most tragic years of the Nazi-Fascist regime, such as Hans Purrmann, Rudolf Levy, Emy Roeder, Heinz Battke, Flavia Arlotta, and Giovanni Colacicchi. The presentation will attempt to reactivate these papers with the narration of the ways in which they attempted to oppose the impositions of the regime and the attacks they received in response, implemented through legislative and bureaucratic restrictions or through isolation and imprisonment. The presentation , under the scientific direction of Prof. Dr. Carlotta Castellani, is part of the activities within the framework of the collaboration between Villa Romana and the University Carlo Bo in Urbino.

7:30pm: Historical reflections from the Atlas of Nazi-Fascist massacres in Florence. With Clara Stavro, Rosa Sancarlo, and Alessandro Pini of ANPI Oltrarno.
In collaboration with ANPI Oltrarno

The Atlas of Anti-Fascist massacres makes the research of dozens of historians and researchers, who since 2009 have contributed to cataloging every episode of violence against defenseless people by German troops and republican fascists in the period 1943-1945, usable and interactive. The project, promoted by ANPI (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d’Italia) and Insmli (Istituto Nazionale per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione in Italia), was financed by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany from the 'German-Italian Future Fund'. The research has completed a census of all violence against unarmed civilians and partisans, which was still missing, thus making available to scholars a critical mass of data and information of great importance, through a dedicated portal and a database that, linked to a historical GIS capable of georeferencing all episodes, is now available at www.straginazifasciste.it. Clara Stavro and Rosa Sancarlo - Villa Romana's collaborators in recent months - in dialogue with Alessandro Pini, have constructed an itinerary that is intended to be the starting point for a more complex conversation on the themes of Nazism, its more or less submerged historical memory, and the contemporary city.

8pm: Reading and introduction by artist Theophilus Imani to the project 'Troubling the Villa Romana Library'

The artist and researcher Theophilus Imani will guide us through a critical reflection on Italian colonial history, using excerpts from the 1888 essay and booklet La questione affricana by Sebastiano Martini Bernardi. This document, published a stone's throw from the Ponte Vecchio, represents a key moment in understanding Italy's early explorations in Africa and the colonial expansionist ideologies that ensued. Imani explores how these expeditions contributed to the formation of an expansionist colonial ideology in the nation, outlining the context of the Italian defeats in the battles of Dogali and Saganeiti. From Maaza Mengiste to Igiaba Scego, from Angelica Pesarini to Uoldelul Chelati Dirar, up to the installations of Jermay Michael Gabriel and Dawit L. Petros, the presented publications address the silencing processes of official history, proposing a new language capable of recovering the past and imagining a different future. Theophilus Imani's introduction to the project Troubling the Villa Romana Library offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on our history and identity, inviting us to consider our position in relation to the past and the present.

9pm: Screening of The Schutztruppestein not "Hererostein" by 2024 Fellow Tuli Mekondjo

The so-called "Hererostein" or "Afrikastein" is located in the military cemetery on Columbiadamm in Berlin-Neukölln. This monument was first laid in 1907 to commemorate seven German soldiers who volunteered for the campaign in South West Africa (now Namibia) between 1904-1907. The inscription on the stone reads "died a hero’s death." The German colonial troops in South West Africa, under the command of Lothar von Trotha, carried out a campaign of ethnic extermination against the OvaHerero and Nama people, which is now recognised as the first genocide of the 20th century. The existence of a monument that names the perpetrators of this genocide as heroes has sparked significant criticism and underscores Germany's complex relationship with its remembrance culture (Erinnerungskultur).
In this video performance, Tuli Mekondjo intervenes at this colonial rock monument by symbolically tying it up, in anticipation of its physical removal. This act is accompanied by ancestral voices from Namibia, reflecting the presence of the artist's ancestors.

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