The 20th Century and Decoration
a cycle of lectures
Palazzo delle Esposizioni – Sala Cinema
29 October – 17 December 2015
It has become something of a tradition for the Palazzo delle Esposizioni to host a programme of lectures to tie with its exhibitions, allowing the public to explore the issues addressed in the exhibition in greater depth. The two curators, together with university lecturers and art historians, will be taking their audience on a virtual exploration of forty years of the history, art, architecture, draughtsmanship and decoration that characterised an era.
29 October, 6.30 pm
Maria Paola Maino and Irene de Guttry
The 20th Century and Decoration. The reasoning behind an exhibition in Paris and Rome
Examining the role of the decorative arts in the development of Italian artistic culture in the first half of the 20th century, from international excellence and local schools to enlightened entrepreneurship and technical and craft traditions, the curators illustrate the guidelines that they followed in devising the exhibition.
19 November, 6.30 pm
Annamaria Damigella
Duilio Cambellotti and the Decorative Arts in Rome
Interior decoration, stained glass, ceramic and graphic art were all part of the wide-ranging creative activity of Duilio Cambellotti, one of Italy's most all-round artists in the Rome of the 1920s, stretching from the "La Casa" magazine project to his output as a member of the "Gruppo Romani Artisti Decoratori Industriali".
26 November, 6.30 pm
Fabio Benzi
Futurism and the Applied Arts
One of the major themes of the Futurist revolution was the modernist utopia of reforming society as whole, penetrating every aspect of man's existence from the public and the social to private life and the design of objects for everyday use.
3 December, 6.30 pm
Matteo Fochessati
Rationalism in Italy: Functionalist solutions, autarchic materials and the Mediterranean feel
In direct dialogue with contemporary experience in abstract painting and sculpture, rationalist research in the field of design and architecture was characterised in Italy by a unique interpretation of the theories of the Modern Movement, in which the approach to functionalism explored the experiments being conducted with modern materials, determined by the requirements of the policy of autarchy, and with a taste for the Mediterranean that represented a cultural bridge between the classical and the modern.
10 December, 6.30 pm
Roberto Dulio
Marcello Piacentini and the Villa "Quota 110". The architect and a synthesis of the arts
The villa "Quota 110", designed by Marcello Piacentini for his family and built in Rome between 1930 and 1932, gave this celebrated Roman architect the opportunity to revolutionise his style, becoming a design workshop for a new synthesis of the arts in accordance with a model that he was to adopt in his subsequent architectural and town-planning projects for Rome's University City and for E42.
17 December, 6.30 pm
Maria Vittoria Marini Clarelli
The Art of Living With Art
The Italians' universally recognised talent in designing and embellishing the world around them, right down to the finest details of interior decoration, is at variance with the changing fortunes of the decorative arts, popular with the collecting public yet less popular with the critics. The lecture explores the institutions' role in protecting this heritage, and the demands and merits of historical and documentary research work.
Our special thanks go to
Info
Palazzo delle Esposizioni – Sala Cinema
Admission via steps in via Milano 9a, Rome
ADMISSION FREE WHILE PLACES LAST
Seats assigned from one hour before the start of each encounter / lecture
Reservations may be made by membership card holders only.
There will no further admission once the event has started.