“Giovanni Gentile has been recognized by authoritative scholars as one of the most important European philosophers of the twentieth century, together with Benedetto Croce. His is a theoretical development that still offers ideas today, from the reference to the Risorgimento or as when in the posthumous essay ‘ Genesis and structure of Italian society’ identified the value of the community. The very choice of the title indicates a vision: ‘Going down the street’ is a motto that Gentile himself used to urge intellectuals to propose culture among the people”. The Minister of Culture said it, Gennaro Sangiuliano, visiting the exhibition ‘Getting down the street. Giovanni Gentile between culture, institutions and politics‘, opened in Rome, at the Central Institute for Graphics.
Present at the preview were, among others, the President of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa; the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Luca Ciriani; the undersecretary of Culture, Lucia Borgonzoni; the undersecretary of Defense, Isabella Rauti; the president of the Chamber’s Culture Commission, Federico Mollicone; the president of the Health, Labor and Social Affairs Commission of the Senate, Franco Zaffini; the leader of Forza Italia in the Senate, Maurizio Gasparri; the deputies Alessandro Amorese and Ilaria Cavo; the heirs of the family including the two nephews, the general director of Education and Research of the MiC, Andrea De Pasquale; the general director of the Contemporary Creativity Directorate of the MiC, Angelo Piero Cappello; the director of the Italian Historical Institute for the Modern and Contemporary Age, Giuseppe Parlato; the presidents of Cinecittà and Anica, Chiara Sbarigia and Francesco Rutelli, the film and television producer, Pietro Valsecchi.
The exhibition consists of seventy-five works exhibited, including originals and reproductions coming from various institutions, including the Roma Sapienza Foundation, the Giovanni Gentile Archive, the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia, the Italian Institute of Germanic Studies, the Regina Margherita Comprehensive Institute and the Museum of Civilizations. A itinerary divided into three rooms to account for complex and multiple cultural policy action undertaken during its existence.
At the Central Institute for Graphics, the exhibition aims to remember one of the greatest and among the most controversial intellectuals of the Italian twentieth century on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of his death. After an introductory part dedicated to his biography and some crucial moments of his academic and political life, the exhibition retraces the various institutions that he promoted and directed in the twenties and thirties of the last century.
In the first room, emphasis is given to the Italian Encyclopedia, the National Center for Manzonian Studies, the Italian Institute for the Middle and Far East and the Italian Institute for Germanic Studies. The latter two, in Gentile’s conception of culture, had to contribute to broadening the horizons of knowledge beyond national borders to de-provincialize Italian culture. The second room focuses on two other cultural institutions that had a strong bond with Gentile: the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, which hosted him first as a student and then as director, and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Also in this environment, ample space is given to the complex Gentile Reform conceived and issued with a series of Royal Decrees in 1923, which gave life to a selective and hierarchical school nourished by historical traditions and humanistic studies. There are also insights into the National Fascist Institute of Culture and the death of the philosopher on 15 April 1944 at the hands of a group of Florentine partisans. At the end of the route, the third room hosts an immersive video, with images of the time, which aims to bring the visitor even further into Gentile’s intellectual and political biography.
“The difficulty in planning this exhibition – explains De Pasquale – mainly concerned the choice of theme, since Gentile was one of the most important Italian philosophers of the twentieth century, but he also convincedly supported fascism taking his choice to its extreme consequences. It was therefore chosen to secularly present Gentile’s life and work to a large audience, highlighting his role in organizing culture. He was in fact the soul of many institutions that still operate in the Italian cultural panorama today and his exhibition aims precisely to highlight this influence of his on the cultural life not only of fascist Italy, but also of republican Italy.”
“Beyond the dictatorial context in which all Gentile’s initiatives were developed – states the coordinator of the Scientific Committee, Giuseppe Parlato – it remains a completed project of modernization through a new relationship between State and culture which has had a notable influence on Italian society After the Second World War, in a completely different context at a political level, the concept of the intellectual engaged in culture and politics remains alive and above all the State’s attention to the promotion of culture in all its forms and disciplines remains”.