On April 19th AIMIG (Association of Italian Friends of Israel Museum) held an International Salon, with the attendance of the International Friends.
AIMIG Co-President Alessia Panella interviewed Debora Rossi, Head of the Archive of the Venice Biennale and General Deputy Director, who guided us through a virtual tour inside the Historical Archive of La Biennale di Venezia (named ASAC) – which stores documents on the history of the Institution – from its foundation in 1895 to the present day – with its Director Debora Rossi. ASAC is not only a place for studying the past, today the Archive represents a space for research and reflection on the future for students, researchers and scholars, but also for those who want to understand the past for organizing the future.
After the greetings of Ido Bruno, the Director of the Israel Museum of Jerusalem, the tour continued to discover the exhibition “The disquieted muses. When La Biennale di Venezia meets History” inaugurated on August 29, 2020 at the Central Pavilion in the Giardini di Castello, taking materials from the photographic and film archives of the Biennale and concluding with astonishing images of this exhibition and its staging, which saw for the first time the Artistic Directors of the Art, Architecture, Cinema, Dance, Music and Theater sectors investigate the funds and collections of the archive, giving life jointly to the exhibition.
These images from the past are still able to leave us perplexed by their tragic nature. We can see, for example, Hitler’s arrival at the Biennale welcomed by Mussolini, or the various interventions of Goering and/or Rudolf Hess, but also great artists such as Giorgio De Chirico, Lucio Fontana and Jeff Koons, and figures such as Peggy Guggenheim and many other important people who visited the Biennale during its 126 years of history and constituted the backbone of this institution, which stands unique at the top of the history of the world’s culture. It was therefore an honor for AIMIG to have access to this topic, and to have had the opportunity to explore it.
Pieces of world history impressed in photographs that allow us to look at the past, not to forget it, with the eyes of the present.
For those who have missed the live event, we publish below the streaming video. Believe us! It’s worthy.