On Friday 10 May, at the end of the conference, the film “Idillio Infranto” will be screened
The national study conference “Bitonto and Puglia in the first half of the twentieth century”, organized by the History and Art Research Center, closes on Friday 10 May, with the screening of the film “Idillio Infranto”, to analyze, together with renowned experts from throughout Italy, the most disparate fields of research, including history, art, architecture, literature, music, cinema and fashion.
After having analyzed the transformations in the fields of politics, territory, music and art, the seventh art will close the interventions, with professor Domenico Saracino (Liceo Artistico Audiovisivo-Multimediale ‘G. Galilei’) on “Silent cinema in Puglia: between real-life films and feature films”. Following, the screening of Nello Mauri’s film, shot in Acquaviva delle Fonti in 1931, among the few films of the time made in Puglia, of which traces remain, and among the last films without sound made in Italy.
On the fifth and final day, on the theme “Stone and light”, we will talk about the building renewal and the fervor that affected the early 20th century for the construction of new identities, among all that of Bari, the third capital of the south. The “Light” is that of the spotlights of the theaters with the music and drama companies, and of the worldliness linked to French high fashion in the Apulian collections, but above all of the cinema projectors, the new “theaters of the poor” with the arrival of the early silent films and film sets.
It starts at 9, in the National Gallery of Puglia “G. and R. Devanna”. Professor Giuseppe Fallacara, Polytechnic of Bari, presides.
This will be followed by speeches by Dino Borri (Polytechnic University of Bari) on “The problematic identity of a new capital city in central Puglia: Bari between the 19th and 20th centuries”; Fabio Magone (University of Naples Federico II) on “The invention of the ‘Apulian Romanesque’ in the early twentieth century”; Nicola Parisi, Federica Fiorio, Immacolata Fasano (Polytechnic of Bari) on “The first half of the twentieth century in Bitonto: architecture and the city”; Annalinda Neglia (Polytechnic of Bari) on “Identity and characteristics of Apulian municipal villas: the municipal villa of Bitonto”; Claudia Calabria (regional directorate of Puglia Museums) on “Artificial stone in the architecture of the early twentieth century in Bari: between constructive innovation and decorative tradition”; Matteo Ieva (Polytechnic of Bari) on “The Mediterranean modernity of the monumental seafronts of Bari”.
The afternoon session will start at 3pm and will be chaired by Professor Giuseppe Poli (Institute for the History of the Italian Risorgimento – Provincial Committee of Bari), with interventions by Giuliano De Felice, Sergio Chiaffarata Iannelli, Maria Nunzia Labarbuta (University of Bari) on ” In the landscape of extremes. A historical-archaeological atlas of twentieth-century conflicts in Puglia”; Rosanna Perillo (State Technical Economic Institute “Vitale Giordano”) on “A place in the city and for the city: the music and prose companies at the Teatro Umberto”; Paola Nitti (Academy of Fine Arts of Bari) on “Charm and magic. French haute couture through the collections of historical Apulian clothing in the century of fashion”.
Poster reports by architects Nicola Cosimo Aluisio, Alba Laura Dell’Olio on “The educational institutions of the twenty years of fascism. The ‘Nicola Fornelli’ school in Bitonto”; Giulia Chiarelli, Francesca Fariello, Angela Laurora, Katia Lupis, Alessia Maria Massarelli, Marika Palummieri (Polytechnic of Bari) on “Cesare Bazzani’s Bergia barracks: modern architecture in Bari”.
Professor Poli will close the conference: «The Bitonto History and Art Research Center is one of the few associations that has systematically organized these initiatives which are useful for deepening a local history that should not be denigrated and reduced to the rank of parochial exaltation. Local history is useful for increasing knowledge about general history. Conferences like this serve to always keep alive that desire to know that past which is useful for us to move forward. History is our rearview mirror.”
For further information, www.centroricerchebitonto.com/convegno900/index.html.
The conference is sponsored by the Puglia Region, the Metropolitan City of Bari, the Municipality of Bitonto, the Banco di Napoli Foundation, the Puglia Regional Museums Directorate, the National Gallery of Puglia “G. and R. Devanna”, University of Bari, Polytechnic of Bari, Order of Journalists of Puglia, Order of Architects, “Niccolò Piccinni” Conservatory of Music – Bari, Society of Homeland History for Puglia, Puglia Institute for the history of ‘Anti-fascism and Contemporary Italy, Institute for the History of the Italian Risorgimento – Provincial Committee of Bari.
