Curated by Alessandro d’Onofrio, Alexander Höbel, Gregorio Sorgonà
Exhibition devised, organised and produced by
Enrico Berlinguer Association for the preservation and enhancement of the Italian Left’s cultural heritage, in the context of a project funded by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers’ National Anniversaries and National and International Sporting Events Mission Structure.
promoted by
The Cultural Heritage Department of Rome the Capital City and the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo
Photo by Renato Corsini
The Azienda Speciale Palaexpo has enthusiastically welcomed this opportunity to host the exhibition on the figure of Enrico Berlinguer to mark the centenary of his birth in the spaces of the Padiglioni del Mattatoio in Rome.
Enrico Berlinguer was one of 20th century political history’s leading players. Secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1972 to 1984 after being a militant and a cadre his party before that, he was a leader of rare moral rectitude with roots in the country’s reality and enjoyed the esteem of his political adversaries.
Marking the first centenary of his birth, the exhibition sets out to help breathe new life into Enrico Berlinguer’s political legacy by reviewing his life and times through original audio-visual and sound materials, photographs and archive documents.
The exhibition is divided into to five main thematic sections exploring: His Private Life; The Party Cadre; In the Italian Crisis; The Global Dimension; and Relevance to Today and the Future.
His Private Life. The first section is devoted to the more emotional, private and family side of Berlinguer’s life. In addition to archive materials, the section also showcases books, photographs and personal items that were an intimate part of his daily life and that have been loaned by the Berlinguer family.
The Party Cadre. The second section explores Berlinguer’s history as a party cadre, reconstructing his career as a Communist militant from when he first joined the PCI Youth Section in Sassari in 1943 until his election to the post of Deputy Secretary of the PCI in 1969.
In the Italian Crisis. Elected Secretary of the PC in 1972, Enrico Berlinguer led the PCI through the heart of the Italian Crisis. This third section reconstructs the context in which the Communist leader operated, reviewing the most crucial moments in his political biography, right up to his premature death in 1984, against the backdrop of a deep-seated crisis in Italian society.
The Global Dimension. The fourth section showcases the global dimension of Berlinguer’s leadership, focusing on the more salient aspects of his political action in relation to the international scene: reflections on events in Chile, the redefinition of relations with the Soviet Union, Eurocommunism, the Vietnam liberation movements and mending ties with the People’s Republic of China, to name but a few.
Relevance to Today and the Future. The final section explores the political legacy of Berlinguer as a central figure in the republican pantheon, appreciated and acknowledged outside the confines of his own world and capable of shining the spotlight on global problems and issues that have become increasingly pressing in recent decades.
Alongside the section devoted strictly to the leader’s own political biography, another three thematic sections explore fundamental aspects of the historical and political context in the years in which Berlinguer was at the helm of the PCI.
Berlinguer’s World examines and recreates the intense network of Berlinguer’s international relations and explores his role as a world leader;
Political Violence, Carnage and Terrorism in Italy reconstructs the long sequence of terrorist attacks and criminal acts that bloodied the country’s democratic life from 1969 to 1984;
A Season of Reforms presents and reviews the laws for whose approval the PCI’s contribution was to prove essential – all of them crucial measures in expanding the borders of democratic citizenship and in building the modern welfare state.
Opening hours:
from Tuesday to Thursday from 2:00pm to 8:00pm (last admission 7:00pm)
From Friday to Sunday from 11:00am to 78:00pm (last admission 7:00pm)
closed on Monday