THE GREAT WAR | ART, PLACES, PROPAGANDA

Through the eyes of the artists of the time, the story of how Italy falls into the war, lives through the conflict, and how it responds. A new perspective, that of artists, in the period from Belle Époque through to Fascism reveals the social and existential tensions that preceded and brought about an unprecidented conflict and later, in an attempt to bring order to the chaos, led to Fascism. The perspective of the painter/soldiers active at the front, from where they describe the damage to humanity, the modified landscapes, and the battle sites that still bear the signs of destruction, exposed through period photographs. A glance at the walls of the city streets where propaganda spreads beyond the pages of the newspapers, with immediacy and effectiveness, to engage and arouse a distant and often oblivious population, called by patriotism and a sense of duty, to offer economic support and other aid to the war machine. It is a journey in understanding how the Great War represents the decisive turning point away from a nineteenth-century civilization and was, in fact, the gateway to contemporary times.