What is the Risorgimento, and what is its significance today?
What does the Risorgimento mean today? The question emphasizes what relationships are still possible between the events that characterized it and our contemporaneity, and what objects, relics, documents, iconographic works that testify to those events according to different interpretations can tell us. In an institute for the conservation of 'historical collections,' there are spaces dedicated to historical research (specialized journals, for example) or to its dissemination (conferences and meetings) that already problematize the question of the Risorgimento, representing an open place of debate. The Museum is open to various audiences by age, education, geographical origin, and orientations, especially with the setup and its 'permanent' interpretative proposal; but it is necessary to imagine innovative and up-to-date storytelling methods, respectful of different sensitivities and capable of forging a renewed link between visitors and a multifaceted heritage, which offers ideas for infinite perspectives of approach and reading. If the narration of that period of our history has perhaps become marginal among the general public, the task is to revitalize its ideal strength: without forcing or parallels, the Risorgimento constitutes an important moment of consolidation and affirmation of ideals that today are at the base of our society and from which many of our freedoms derive.
Why are the objects on display representative of the Risorgimento today? What is their evocative and testimonial power today?
Suggesting the meaning of which the objects selected by the Museum of the Risorgimento in Milan for the exhibition 'Re-reading the Risorgimento' are today carriers is a complex operation. One of the possible perspectives is to tell what is the network of relationships that today these objects – all present in the permanent exhibition of the Museum – build with the other exhibited goods. In the current museum setup – dating back to 2009 with subsequent revisions – the heart of the exhibition is dedicated to the story of the Five Days, illustrated mainly through paintings that immortalize glimpses of Milan characterized by clashes around barricades. The reiteration of this type of view allows the public to imagine the pervasiveness of the barricades, during the insurrection of 1848, in the urban fabric (almost 1,700 were erected), an element that proved decisive for the defeat of the Austrians. Well-known glimpses of Milan are recognizable, such as the Columns of San Lorenzo, for example, in order to make possible the creation of a link between historical events, places and people who today live in the urban public space. In the visits addressed to different audiences, the bell evokes the 'voice' of a city that through its tolling communicated the insurrection (in the early stages of the museum setup sound elements recalled this event). The importance of the tangible object as a vehicle of memory or – in various capacities – 'relic' still strikes the imagination – for example – of students visiting our museum as happens in front of Manara's uniform: the significance of the object witnessing the events is increased by being exhibited next to the large painting by Filippo Vittori, The Lombard sharpshooters and the lancers of death transport Luciano Manara seriously wounded to Villa Spada, in which it is the same uniform that is transported next to the body. In an era of immaterial supports, the importance of the mediation of the physical object to create a relationship with the past, with history and also with its violence remains, even in the changing contemporary sensitivities in front of the same, a point from which to start.
Patrizia Foglia, Collection of drawings and prints – Exhibition Office | Palazzo Moriggia – Museum of the Risorgimento of Milan
Ilaria Torelli, Curator | Palazzo Moriggia – Museum of the Risorgimento of Milan
