Friday, April 11, 2014

MONUMENT TO ALCIDE DE GASPERI

MONUMENTO AD ALCIDE DE GASPERI
2005 Maria Dompè (1959)
It was commissioned by the City of Rome on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the Italian political leader
The phrases engraved on the monument remind of his dream of European unification
The cars constantly parked in a no parking zone around the work hide it and prevent unfortunately the appreciation it deserves
Alcide De Gasperi (1881/1954) was one of the founding fathers of the Italian Republic and of the European Union
He was antifascist and believed in the secular state. In 1952 he rejected the Vatican's suggestion to form a government in alliance with the neo-fascists to prevent the success of the communists. Pius XII Pacelli (1939/58), in turn, refused to receive him at the Vatican on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of his wedding
He was born in the Trentino region and in Rome he lived simply in what is now Via Alcide De Gasperi, a few steps from the monument
He was an honest politician, armed with solid values, a rare flower sadly never bloomed again in the corrupt and treacherous swamp of Italian politics
"The memory function does not work on the past but on the future, as a stimulus to implement and enhance the moral legacy of the great statesman. Therefore, the monument embodied his thought, rather than portray him in an official capacity. Without rhetoric, it expresses his profound ideals, eternal and incorruptible as the memory. Bronze plates welcome a verdant meadow, 'essence' of the valleys of Trentino where he was De Gasperi born. The triangle indicates movement, energy, reachingthe new. The manifestos of the early avant-garde movements were full similar of signs, praising progress and confidence in its infinite potential. (...) From above, the structure resembles a kite, or a paper airplane: simple forms with which children have always shaped their dreams of freedom. The same dreams of De Gasperi, cast by Maria Dompè with the 'gravity of lightness', which connotes, always, her work" (Maria Egizia Fiaschetti - Web Site of Maria Dompè - www.mariadompe.com)

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