In 1940, the Fascist regime established the “Entity of Colonization of Sicilian Latifundia / Ente di Colonizzazione del Latifondo Siciliano” following the model of the “Entity of Colonization of Libya” and colonial architecture in Eritrea and Ethiopia. These territories were considered by the regime “empty,” “underdeveloped,” and “backward” and therefore in need to be “reclaimed,” “modernized,” and “repopulated.” For this purpose, the “Entity of Colonization” inaugurated in Sicily eight new rural towns and as many remained unfinished. Today most of these villages have fallen into ruin.
However, what does not seem to be in ruin in Italy is the persistence of colonial and fascist rhetoric, culture, and politics. Despite the fall of fascism following the Second World War, Italy’s de-fascistization remains an unfortunately unfinished process. This is one of the reasons why Italy still has visible architectures, monuments, plaques, and toponymy that celebrate the fascist regime. Furthermore, Italy – having lost its colonies during the Second World War – has never embarked on a real process of decolonization.
In 2017, the nomination of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its fascist and colonial architecture built during the period of Italian occupation, posed a series of fundamental questions for both the ex-colonized and the ex- colonizers: who has the right to preserve, reuse and re-narrate fascist colonial architecture?
The installation presented for the 2020 Quadriennale d´arte- FUORI at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, home to the First International Colonial Art Exhibition (1931) and other propaganda exhibitions of the regime, proposes to rethink the rural towns built by the “Entity of Colonization” in Sicily starting from the nomination of Asmara as a World Heritage Site. The installation is the first intervention ”Towards a Decolonization Entity / Verso un Ente di Colonizzazione” that will be made up of those who feel the urgency to question the broad historical, cultural and political heritage steeped in colonialism and fascism, and thus begin a common path towards new practices of decolonization and reparation.
TOWARDS AN ENTITY OF DECOLONIZATION/ VERSO UN ENTE DI DECOLONIZZAZIONE, 2020
A project by Sandi Hilal e Alessandro Petti (DAAR)
Photograpohic dossier: Luca Capuano
Installation: Video projections, Photographs, plexiglass
Research and text: Emilio Distretti, Husam Abu Salem
Graphic design: Diego Segatto, Rosanna Lama
QUADRIENNALE D’ARTE 2020 | FUORI
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma
30 Ottobre 2020 > 17 Gennaio 2021
Towards an Entity of Decolonization
Sandi Hilal, Emilio Distretti, Alessandro Petti
In 1940 the fascist regime established the “Entity of Colonization of Sicilian Latifundia / Ente di Colonizzazione del Latifondo Siciliano” following the model of the “Entity of Colonization of Libya,” and the colonial architecture in Eritrea and Ethiopia, and what has already been experimented with the plans of integral reclamation and “internal colonization” of the Pontine Marches around Roma. Using different forms of violence and oppression, genocidal forms against colonized peoples, and social engineering and class violence on the Italian front, fascism had identified in these “territories” an abstract, uniform, and homogeneous geographical space to “modernize” and “repopulate,” as it is considered “empty,” “underdeveloped” and “backward.” For this purpose, Sicily had become, in the eyes of fascism, the last front of modernization, whose rural world, as opposed to the city, was considered a “virgin” land to be occupied.
Before the world conflict prevented it, fascism inaugurated eight Sicilian villages until 1943, while others remained unfinished. Following the principles of modernist aesthetics and plans of fascist colonial architecture, the villages were built around the void of the square, the “civic center” of the State institutions aimed at “civilizing” the countryside considered empty and lifeless: the Church, the Post Office, the School, Casa del Fascio, the Entity of colonization, are just some of the institutions designated to forge the cultural, political and spiritual education of the “new fascist colonist”. Thus, the new founding villages would “connect” the various parts of the new Italian Empire to each other.
To celebrate this fictitious unity, many of the Sicilian villages, including Borgo Bonsignore, Borgo Fazio, and Borgo Giuliano, took the name of fascist martyrs and soldiers and settlers who died in Ethiopia during the colonial war of occupation. Simultaneously, fascism had continued the “internal colonization” as an instrument and strategy of oppressing internal dissent. If on the one hand, the villages were conceived as an instrument and space for the agricultural transformation of the Sicilian countryside in an extensive, extractive, and capitalist key, the forced migration plans to the South served the regime to prevent revolts in the northern countryside, break the ties between the agricultural workers with anti-fascist movements, and transforming laborers into small landowners.
Today most of these villages have fallen into disrepair. The depopulation and migrations of the Sicilian countryside after the war, over time, have meant that the buildings that housed the fascist institutions fell into neglect, or in some cases, were transformed by residents into homes. Today, these villages are the materialization of a suspension, not the definitive elimination of a historical and political trajectory. Despite the fall of fascism and the end of historical colonialism, Italy’s de- fascistization and decolonization remain unfortunately unfinished processes. To date, the lack of a critical review process has meant that the cultural and political apparatus of colonialism and fascism has survived: among these, institutional racism and a widespread feeling of the presumed superiority of European civilization, the consequent dehumanization of populations from the (post) colonial world, the surviving of monuments and streets that celebrate fascist and colonial ideology and history, and the lack of an education in critical knowledge of the past within the Italian educational system.
In Italy, as demonstrated by the Sicilian villages, this long-lasting political and cultural impasse is very visible through the normalization or neglect of fascist architecture. As has been debated by postcolonial critics and literature in recent years and loudly contested in 2020 on the wave of global uprisings against the presence of symbols celebrating imperial and colonial violence in urban spaces of the Northern Hemisphere, in Italy, it is very common to find colonial/fascist buildings (as well as monuments, plaques, memorials, and toponymy) which, rather than being removed, dismantled or destroyed, have been left intact. Since the end of the Second World War, fascist architecture (and urban projects) have been reused or developed by republican governments to give a home to the new Italian liberal democratic institutions. The relics of fascism and colonialism have been progressively normalized within urban landscapes, escaping the critical gaze of anti-fascist culture and politics.
To date, with the “return” of fascism on a global scale and the increasing arrival in recent decades of migrants from the former colonial world, the need to reopen the processes of decolonization and de-fascitization has become more urgent than ever. And with them, new questions on “what to do” with the fascist colonial architectural “heritage.” Is it possible to imagine reuse without running the risk of eternally perpetuating this same ideology and against the danger of self-absolution and nostalgia?
In 2017 Asmara, the capital of Eritrea was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The nomination, entitled “Asmara – Modernist Citizen of Africa”, refers to the colonial, fascist, and modernist architectural and urban transformation of Asmara that took place during the Italian colonial occupation. Not exempt from criticism, the Asmara inscription poses a series of problematic elements: from the risk of presenting the colonial city built by the Italians as the model of urban heritage of the African continent to the danger of reinforcing nostalgic impulses or constituting a propaganda tool for the Eritrean regime, up to the risk of yielding to the paradigms of conservation of Eurocentric architectural and cultural heritage imposed by UNESCO.
Despite these controversies, the appointment of Asmara nevertheless posed for the first time a series of fundamental questions that concern and unite both ex-colonizers and ex-colonizers: who has the right to preserve, reuse, and re-narrate fascist colonial architecture?
The art installation presented by DAAR for the 2020 Quadriennale d’Arte 2020 – FUORI at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, home to the first international exhibition of colonial art (1931) and other propaganda exhibitions of the regime, proposes to rethink the villages built by fascism in Sicily starting from the appointment of Asmara as a world heritage site. The installation is the first step towards the creation of Entity of Decolonization that will be open to those who feel the urgency to question a broad historical, cultural and political heritage steeped in colonialism and fascism, and thus start a common path towards new practices of decolonization and de-fascistization.
The installation is the first intervention, and it will be followed by a second step ”Towards a Decolonization Entity / Verso un Ente di Decolonizzazione”: the opening of a summer school, a space for critical knowledge and pedagogy, to investigate the aftermath of colonial and fascist architectural heritage. The school will take place in the summer 2021, in Borgo Rizza, Municipality of Carlentini, (Siracusa), one of the rural settlements built by fascism. The school wants to intervene in the debate regarding the architectural heritage associated with the histories of violent pasts and painful memories. It is a collaboration between the Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Course, at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, the MA program in Critical Urbanisms, at the University of Basel and the local community in Carlentini. The lived experience in these towns will offer the opportunity to elaborate on a series of important questions: What should be done with such troublesome heritage? Is there a possibility for its re-use and for critical preservation without falling into the celebration of colonial/fascist ideologies? Who has the right to reuse and reclaim this heritage? Answering these questions will also help to problematize the exploitative relation of the ‘urban’ with the countryside, histories of migration and unsolved questions of (post)colonial injustice – especially after the renewed interest in the “countryside” at the time of a global pandemic.
Thus, the formation of an Entity of Decolonization wants to pose the question of the reappropriation and re-narration of the spaces and symbols of colonialism and fascism within a broad decolonial perspective, and thus contribute to reversing the Italian trend towards the self-absolving narrative of colonialism “less worse” than the others. In an international context in which the claims of the ex-colonized to true reparation and compensation for the crimes of colonialism and slavery are becoming stronger and more enthralling, the Entity of Decolonization intends to start with simple questions that make it possible to claim the right to re-frame the historical narrative, starting with the presence of the colonial and fascist architectural heritage: given that the villages were built to give shape and body to the fascist ideology, how it is possible to subvert its founding principles, starting from these same places as a new “center” of the fight against contemporary fascisms? How to transform these villages into an antidote to fascism? Who has the right to re-narrate and reuse these villages that were built to celebrate the fascist martyrs in the wars of occupation in Africa? Is it possible to imagine a critical reuse of these places, which becomes an ally of a path of reparation for the crimes of the past? Is reuse intended as a repair conceivable? Is it possible a path of reparation that goes beyond the sphere of bilateral treaties between governments and states? In what forms can this reparation or compensation take shape? Can architectural heritage play a role in all of this?
—–
Borgo Rizza
Data di costruzione: inizio lavori gennaio 1940 / fine lavori ottobre 1940
Riferimento del nome del borgo: Angelo Rizza
Architetto/ingegnere: Pietro Gramignani
Possibile tipologia di borgo: Tipo A
Distretto: Tummarello, Area Carlentini, provincia di Siracusa
Coordinate: 37°13’50.4”N 15°01’26.1”E
Proprietario del terreno prima della costruzione: famiglia Cafici
Valore terreno al momento della costruzione: £ 1.520.904
Costi di costruzione: £ 1.696.800
Stato attuale: parzialmente ristrutturato
Popolazione: 0 (dati relativi al 2011)
fonti Archivio Luce: www.patrimonio.archivioluce.com
www.vacuamoenia.net/it/portfolio/borgo-rizza/
wwwvoxhumana.blogspot.com/search/label/Borgo20%Rizza
www.ascosilasciti.com/it/07/07/2016/borgo-rizza-lo-spreco-siculo-europeo
Borgo Bonsignore
Data di costruzione: inizio lavori gennaio 1940 / fine lavori 1940
Riferimento del nome del borgo: Antonio Bonsignore (ha preso parte alla guerra d’Etiopia) Architetto/ingegnere: Donato Mendolia
Possibile tipologia di borgo: Tipo A
Distretto: Comune di Ribera, provincia di Agrigento
Coordinate: 37°25’18.8”N 13°16’11.7”E
Proprietario del terreno prima della costruzione: ospedale civico di Sciacca (in gran parte)
Valore terreno al momento della costruzione: £ 1.551.837,0
Costi di costruzione: £ 1.303.505,10
Stato attuale: Varie ristrutturazioni e aggiunte / disabitato
Photogrphic dossier: Luca Capuano
fonti Archivio Luce: www.patrimonio.archivioluce.com
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borgo_Bonsignore
https://wwwvoxhumana.blogspot.com/03/2013/la-via-dei-borghi-12la-quinta-fase-dei.html https://www.fondoambiente.it/luoghi/borgo-bonsignore?ldc
Borgo Schirò
Data di costruzione: fine lavori dicembre 1940
Riferimento del nome del borgo: Giacomo Schirò
Architetto/ingegnere: Girolamo Manetti-Cusa
Possibile tipologia di borgo: Tipo A
Distretto: Comune di Monreale, provincia di Palermo
Coordinate: 37°29’48.8”N 14°12’00.6”E
Proprietario del terreno prima della costruzione: famiglie Mirto, Riina, Terrusa, Gennaro e Chiaramonte
Valore terreno al momento della costruzione: £ 2,405,945.0
Costi di costruzione: £ 4,620,024.68
Stato attuale: cattive condizioni, ristrutturazioni limitate, graffiti su molti edifici
Popolazione: 0 (dati relativi al 2011)
fonti Archivio Luce: www.patrimonio.archivioluce.com
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borgo_Schir%C%3B2
http://wwwvoxhumana.blogspot.com/search/label/borgo20%Schir%C%3B2
https://www.vacuamoenia.net/it/portfolio/borgo-schiro/
Borgo Cascino
Date of construction: 1940
Name: Antonio Cascino participated in the occupation of Albania and Slovenia
Population: 47
Architect: Giuseppe Marletta
Typology: A
Provance: Enna
Coordinate: 37°29’48.8”N 14°12’00.6”E
Landowners before the construction: Famiglie Greco-Militello e Lo Manto
Actual status: Renovated in 2004
Notes from the field
This was the first town we visited in our fieldwork. In the square, we met a welcoming old couple. (conversation link). They talked about a continuously inhabited town as an extended family.
The town was given to the local municipality from the “Ente dello sviluppo” with the requirement that the buildings should have a permanent public use. At the time of the visit, the public buildings have been transformed into housing. And although they don’t have any recognized ownership, they don’t’ feel the fear of being evicted.
The town has been recently renovated in 2004 (“Lavori di sviluppo e rinnovamento” Ministero delle politiche agricole alimentari e forestale, fondo europeo agricolo per lo sviluppo rurale, programma di sviluppo rurale, Enna Municipality).
A plaque entitled to Antonio Cascino , a soldier who died in the war of 1917.
The town is designed around the piazza, a void created by the facades of public institutions. What is this void? The facades and the piazza are very photogenic. It is not surprising that local photographers use it as a location for weddings.
Photogrphic dossier: Luca Capuano
Data di costruzione: inizio lavori febbraio 1940 / fine lavori dicembre 1940
Riferimento del nome del borgo: Antonio Cascino (ha partecipato alla colonizzazione di Albania e Slovenia)
Architetto/ingegnere: Giuseppe Marletta
Possibile tipologia di borgo: Tipo A
Distretto: Provincia di Enna
Coordinate: 37°29’48.8”N 14°12’00.6”E
Proprietario del terreno prima della costruzione: Famiglie Greco-Militello e Lo Manto
Valore terreno al momento della costruzione: £ 1,842,224.0
Costi di costruzione: £ 1,323,645.0
Stato attuale: Varie ristrutturazioni ed aggiunte. Parzialmente abitato
Popolazione: 47 (dati relativi al 2011)
fonti Archivio Luce: www.patrimonio.archivioluce.com
https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borgo_Cascino,_Enna
https://www.ennamagazine.it/News/TabId/92/ArtMID/490/ArticleID/2270 http://wwwvoxhumana.blogspot.com/05/2013/la-via-dei-borghi-15la-quinta-fase-dei.html https://www.vacuamoenia.net/it/portfolio/borgo-cascino/
Borgo Lupo
Data di costruzione: inizio lavori gennaio 1940 / fine lavori dicembre 1940
Riferimento del nome del borgo: Pietro Lupo (ha partecipato alla guerra in Africa)
Architetto/ingegnere: Filippo Marino
Possibile tipologia di borgo: Tipo B
Distretto: Comune di Mineo, provincia di Catania
Coordinate: 37°20’30.4”N 14°37’34.3”E
Proprietario del terreno prima della costruzione: probabilmente famiglia Giusino
Valore terreno al momento della costruzione: N.A.
Costi di costruzione: £ 1,865,938.30
Stato attuale: diverse ristrutturazioni
Popolazione: 15 (dati relativi al 2019)
fonti Archivio Luce: www.patrimonio.archivioluce.com
http://wwwvoxhumana.blogspot.com/search/label/Borgo%20Lupo
https://www.vacuamoenia.net/it/portfolio/borgo-lupo/
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-the-central-square-of-borgo-pietro-lupo-built-news-photo/482271325
Borgo Fazio
Data di costruzione: inizio lavori gennaio 1940 / fine lavori dicembre 1940
Riferimento del nome del borgo: Amerigo Fazio (ha partecipato alla colonizzazione dell’Eritrea)
Architetto/ingegnere: Luigi Epifanio
Possibile tipologia di borgo: Tipo B
Distretto: Comune di Guarine, provincia di Trapani
Coordinate: 37°51’26.3”N 12°40’03.5”E
Proprietario del terreno prima della costruzione: N. A.
Valore terreno al momento della costruzione: N.A (i proprietari rifiutarono di vendere e aprirono una causa civile)
Costi di costruzione: £ 1,502,319.0
Stato attuale: abbandonato, rovine
Popolazione: 0
fonti Archivio Luce: www.patrimonio.archivioluce.com
http://wwwvoxhumana.blogspot.com/04/2013/la-via-dei-borghi-13la-quinta-fase-dei.html
https://www.vacuamoenia.net/it/portfolio/borgo-fazio/
Borgo Giuliano
Data di costruzione: inizio lavori gennaio 1940 / fine lavori dicembre 1940
Riferimento del nome del borgo: Salvatore Giuliano (ha preso parte alla colonizzazione dell’Eritrea)
Architetto/ingegnere: Guido Baratta
Possibile tipologia di borgo: Tipo A
Distretto: Provincia di Messina
Coordinate: 37°49’15.5”N 14°41’10.0”E
Proprietario del terreno prima della costruzione: Leanza Amato
Valore terreno al momento della costruzione: £ 1,280,539
Costi di costruzione: £ 1,287,923
Stato attuale: totalmente abbandonato, rovine
Popolazione: 0 (dati relativi al 2011)
fonti Archivio Luce: www.patrimonio.archivioluce.com
http://wwwvoxhumana.blogspot.com/search/label/Borgo%20Giuliano
https://www.vacuamoenia.net/it/portfolio/borgo-giuliano/
Borgo Petilia
Date: 1940
Name: Originally named Borgo Gigino Gattuso
Population: 85
Architecture: Edoardo Caracciolo
Tipology: Tipo A
provance: Caltanissetta
Coordinate: 37°32’35.0”N 14°03’37.0”E
Actual status: partially renewed
Notes from the fieldwork
The town is more modest compared to others. The community is quite active: they renovated the church and other buildings. A museum of the farmer civilization aims “through territorial marketing, give values to local cultural, identity, tradition and local food with the activation of a web site for tourists”.
It was previously named Gigini Gattuso, a fascist militant protagonist also of one of Camilleri novel, “Privo di Titolo”.
The main building was heavily transformed.
Photographic dosser Luca Capuano
Data di costruzione: inizio lavori gennaio 1940 / fine lavori dicembre 1940
Riferimento del nome del borgo: Il borgo originariamente era stato chiamato Borgo Gigino Gattuso
Architetto/ingegnere: Edoardo Caracciolo
Possibile tipologia di borgo: Tipo A
Distretto: Comune di Caltanissetta, provincia di Caltanissetta
Coordinate: 37°32’35.0”N 14°03’37.0”E
Proprietario del terreno prima della costruzione: N.A.
Valore terreno al momento della costruzione: N.A.
Costi di costruzione: £ 1,267,226.60
Stato attuale: parzialmente ristrutturato
Popolazione: 85 (dati relativi al 2011)
fonti Archivio Luce: www.patrimonio.archivioluce.com
http://wwwvoxhumana.blogspot.com/search/label/borgo%20Petilia
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borgo_Petilia