Imperial Rome, Spectral Landscapes

Event

Imperial Rome, Spectral Landscapes

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EXHIBITION

April 10 - 30, 2023

Dean's Gallery, Campbell Hall, UVA School of Architecture


GALLERY TALK + RECEPTION

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Dean's Gallery

5pm (ET)


Rome, one of the most studied cities in the Western world, and its empire is still represented through sites such as the Pantheon, Coliseum, and the Roman Forum. These structures were the inspiration for Mussolini’s Fascist Project to transform the Roman cityscape in the 20th century. The “Esposizione Universale Roma” or "Rome World Exposition" for the 1942 World’s Fair, called the EUR or E'42 project, drew references from the ancient empire to legitimize the Fascist Empire. Still missing from the urban scapes of imperial Rome is the influence of the colonial empire.


The ghosted connections of Rome and its colonies stretch to the far shores of Africa where empires extracted wealth, people, and imagery. The Italian colonial empire of the 19th and 20th centuries created models of Rome in the African colonies. This study seeks to uncover hidden narratives, and examine the themes of image and extraction to make apparent connections between Rome and its colonial landscapes through archival and field images.

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Campbell Hall