Wednesday, 26 February 2025, 6 p.m.
Arrhythmias of modernity.
The invention of the desert and the memories of colonialism in FIAT 633NM by Eleonora Roaro
Eleonora Roaro, artist, dialogs with Andrea Mariani, Professor of Cinema, Photography, and Television at the University of Udine
Trieste Contemporanea
via del Monte 2, Trieste
It will be Trieste Contemporanea, a stronghold for the promotion of contemporary artistic research in the region, that will host on Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 6 p.m. the meeting Arithmias of Modernity. The Invention of the Desert and the Memories of Colonialism in FIAT 633NM by Eleonora Roaro, part of the program promoted by Altreforme as part of the 8th edition of Mind The Gap.
In the context of investigating Fascist colonialism in Africa in the late 1930s, particularly in the territories of Ethiopia and Eritrea, Eleonora Roaro and Andrea Mariani’s talk aims to deconstruct the myth of modernity starting from two emblematic and mutually antithetical elements: the desert environment, perceived as a territory yet to be colonized, and the means of transportation. In Andrea Mariani’s book “L’audacissimo viaggio: I media, il deserto e il cinema nella microstoria della spedizione Tripoli-Addis Ababa 1937” (2017), the automobile reveals its limitations in its attempt to control the territory: the efficiency promoted by the modernist myth of technology collapses in the face of failures and errors. In Eleonora Roaro’s audio-video installation “FIAT 633NM” (2021), on the other hand, the FIAT truck becomes a symbol of fascist rhetoric about infrastructure and the need to dominate time and the unknown.
The desert landscape thus stands as a cultural invention, a space ideologically constructed to legitimize forms of abuse and domination.
Admission is free while places last.
The meeting is part of the public program of the exhibition Come costruisci le immagini dell’altro? (How do you construct images of the other?), produced by Altreforme in collaboration with the City of Udine and open at Casa Cavazzini, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Udine until March 16, 2025.
See the schedule of events here:
www.projectmindthegap.it/conferenze-e-laboratori/
Eleonora Roaro (Varese, 1989) is a visual artist and researcher based in Milan.
She studied Photography at IED Milan, Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at NABA and Contemporary Art Practice at Plymouth University.Her works are often the result of research that digs deep into archival materials, highlighting, through the moving image, submerged stories and unusual details removed or distorted from collective and individual memories.
Since 2011, his work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries, including La Triennale, Milan; Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan; Casa degli Artisti, Milan; Museo Diffuso, Turin; CAMERA, Turin; MACRO, Rome; CAMeC, La Spezia; E-Werk, Freiburg; Maison de la Culture, Clermont-Ferrand; La Friche, Marseille; and Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Madrid-Prague. In academia, he is also a lecturer at NABA and IED in Milan and has published articles in scientific journals such as L’avventura, Alphaville and LabCom.
Andrea Mariani is Associate Professor at the University of Udine (Italy), where he teaches Media Theory (LT), Film Philology (LM) and Exhibition Design (LM). He is currently Principal Investigator (PI) of the PRIN2022 project FilmBaseMatters: A Material Approach to the History of Small-Gauge Film in Italy and scientific contributor to the Amateur Movie Database (https://www.amateurcinema.org). He is also editor of the publishing series Plexus (Meltemi) and ExSeries (Mimesis/DSL Press+).