Fascism and Architecture

http://ubartgalleries.buffalo.edu/exhibitions/photographic-recall-italian-rationalist-architecture-in-contemporary-german-art/

I saw an excellent free exhibit, Photographic Recall: Italian Rationalist Architecture in Contemporary German Art, at the University at Buffalo's Anderson Gallery (a hidden gem). The exhibit features big-name German art photographers (likely familiar with monumental Nazi architecture back home) and their images of fascist architecture in Italy. It made me consider a number of things.

First, I thought of the beginning of George Orwell's 1984 (Listen through from 0:00 to 7:52). You can hear how Orwell is making a connection between how architecture influences how the main character, Winston, feels, as it embodies both memory (the deteriorating 19th-century London apartments) and ideology (the four giant, gleaming ministry buildings).

That thought lead me here:

This video by TRT, a Turkish public broadcast service, investigates what it is like to live with this sort of architecture, and how it may play a role in resurgent fascist politics in Italy.

The video also mentions how Mussolini made new roads through Rome, and his remapping of that ancient city reminded me how we make our own maps of our own worlds. Here is such a map of Boston (which is a really confusing city to navigate) that a writer Elizabeth Preston made:





Here is the accompanying article, from The Atlantic.