METROPOLE/COLONY ANALYSIS
Italian fascism manifests its image very quickly through the
medium of modernity in technology, material symbolism, architectural gestures,
and its social influence. It is
easy to gain power when people believe in a greater meaning or cause, and the
belief in that grander gesture makes people want to bring this change
themselves. This is very apparent
in the works shown in Metropole/Colony : Africa and Italy. The prevalent use of the airplane
as a recurrent theme speaks of its ambitions in many ways. It speaks of technological advancement,
national power, and growth through colonization as well as the opportunities of
globalization opened up to its Nation.
The poster that depicts the people giving up their gold rings for steel
ones has quite a few meanings as well.
First it is a visual testament that reinforces the devotion and pride
the people had for their nation, but it also speaks of a sacrificial offering
of the old (financial) values of gold, and embraces the symbolic (ideological)
values of steel which shows the acceptance and desire for the modern material
and of modernization in general.
The products, machines, buildings, and airplanes were all made of steel,
so it is easy to correlate this material to the idea of progress. The architectural works being designed
also carried these themes. The poster that displays the design of the Roma 1942
arch by Giorgio (1939) forms a symbolic reference to the trajectory of the
flight of an airplane bridging nations.
It speaks of technology, power, growth, and is the epitome of all these
ideals as it solidified it in built form. It shows that design across the board was embracing
these themes and it was the variety all of these forms that became the subject
matter for the propaganda that reinforced the social and political change. They all worked together to reinforce
the cause, very much reminiscent of what fascism asked of its people, and
therefore the display of the exhibit not only displays each medium used in a
variety of propaganda, but in itself becomes a large scale metaphor for the
ideals of the fascist government and all it represents.
2 comments:
I appreciate your first sentence and how it clearly lists exactly what you will be mentioning in your later examples. However, I also feel like your second sentence could also be a topic statement. I can see the connection in the final statement and find your point about the exhibit itself being a metaphor very interesting. I did not think about it in that sense.
I like your descriptions of the metaphorical visual representation of the fascist propaganda and as well as your analysis of the subsequent social influences on Italian society. You set an interesting point about the use of steel for the origin marriage rings’ replacement, as reinforcement of the backbone meaning of the steel for the Italian modernization.
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