JAN.18th - 18H30 

Towards an Entity of Decolonisation 

Alessandro Petti (DAAR - Decolonizing Architecture Art Research) 

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In 1940, the Italian Fascist regime established the “Entity of Colonization of Sicilian Latifundium” following the model of the “Entity of Colonization of Libya” and fascist-colonial architecture in Eritrea and Ethiopia with the aim to colonise the south of Italy considered by the regime an internal colony, “empty,” “underdeveloped,” and “backward” and therefore in need of being “reclaimed,” “modernized,” and “repopulated.” For this purpose, the “Entity of Colonization” inaugurated eight new rural towns in Sicily, and as many remained unfinished. Today most of these fascist architectures have been normalized perpetuating fascist, colonial and modernist narrations, rhetoric, culture and politics. 

Against reemergence of nostalgic and neo-fascist ideologies, in Borgo Rizza in Sicily, one of the rural towns built by the Entity of Colonisation, we made a series of discursive, educational, architectural and political interventions in order to transform the former Entity of Colonization of Sicilian Latifundim in Borgo Rizza into an Entity of Decolonization. These interventions took the form of site research, summer schools, art installations, exhibitions and public events, bringing together the local community, international universities and cultural institutions, associations and partnerships with different municipalities. 

Despite the fall of fascism following the Second World War, Europe’s de-fascistization, unfortunately, remains an unfinished process. This is one of the reasons why there are many visible architectures and monuments that celebrate the fascist regimes. Therefore, it becomes urgent to ask: what kind of heritage is the fascist-colonial and modernist heritage? And, who has the right to re-use it? Should this heritage simply be demolished, or could it be re-oriented towards other ends?’