Conservare l’intempestivo: riflessioni sulla vicenda del Memoriale italiano ad Auschwitz / Preserving the Untimely: Thoughts on the case of the Italian Memorial at Auschwitz
Gregorio Carboni Maestri- Virna Maria Nannei
Published 2025-12-12
Keywords
- Memory preservation,
- Italian Memorial at Auschwitz,
- Glossa Project,
- Memoriale delle deportazioni in Firenze
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2025 Gregorio Carboni Maestri, Virna Maria Nannei
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Developed by the BBPR studio and sponsored by ANED, the Italian Memorial at Auschwitz, which opened in 1980, was intended as a choral and immersive work, featuring a suspended spiral covered in canvases painted by Pupino Samonà, paired with Primo Levi’s narration and Luigi Nono’s music. Since 2008, two projects have been launched to preserve the Memorial: the Glossa Project for minimal restoration, and the subsequent Glossa XX1 project (2010-15) for a more comprehensive intervention. These projects raised questions about what it means to restore the untimely: a monument designed to be inconvenient risked being domesticated. Deemed unsuitable for the didactic aims of the Auschwitz Museum, the exhibition was closed in 2011 and eventually relocated to Florence. The Memorial’s ability to challenge memory as a source of conflict remains a landmark case in the debate over the restoration of modern works. Following its removal, many memorials in Eastern Europe were demolished.