From the European South

a transdisciplinary journal of postcolonial humanities

Lutte, échec, nouvelle lutte. Terzomondismo e antimperialismo nelle ricerche visuali italiane degli anni Sessanta

Marco Rinaldi

Abstract

Lutte, échech, nouvelle lutte. Third-Worldism and Anti-Imperialism in the Italian Visual Research of the 1960s. During the Sixties, on the basis of an increasingly intense politicization at the domestic level, many Italian artistic experiences brought to the fore hot topics such as the Vietnam War or the Chinese Cultural Revolution, like Mario Schifano summarised in his 1969 movie Umano non umano; but only a few among them reveal a genuine interest in Third-Worldism and liberation struggles. Already in 1961, Intolleranza 1960, a multimedia scenic action by Luigi Nono, Angelo Maria Ripellino and Emilio Vedova, directed its exasperated experimentalism on the themes of contemporary political violence in general, and on the Algerian War in particular. The Cuban and Chinese Cultural Revolutions, seen as alternative phenomena to American imperialism and Soviet socialism, fascinated many Western left-wing intellectuals and artists, among them Gastone Novelli. He actively participated in the 1968 protests, fighting with works and words against the Vietnam War. The reduction of his language to slogan category, and the use of communication form of da-tze-bao, lead him to further develop his research on free or authoritarian use of language.

Keywords

Luigi Nono, Emilio Vedova, Gastone Novelli, Mario Schifano, Arte Povera, language, ideology

Pages

9-21

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