THE SCENOGRAPHIES

One of the means of expression used by the Historiale is the use of scenography, i.e. the introduction of elements in which matter is understood as the key to symbolic interpretation. In the Historiale, the material element evokes an immaterial universe made up of values, ideals, moods, messages that involve the conscience, the interiority.

With this in mind, Gerardo Viggiano, the set designer, on the basis of an idea by the set designer Emmanuel Bourgeois, has turned every object, every fragment of reality, into a container of sensations and emotions.
The most striking and evocative scenographic elements are undoubtedly the large uprooted olive tree, the column of suitcases and the wall of white soldiers.

The large olive tree, burnt and chained to the walls, in the room dedicated to the destruction of the abbey, represents the end of illusions, the uprooting of the civilian population from its territory, its history and its identity, while the suitcase column, in the room dedicated to post-war emigration, is a sculpture created by the “compression and layering” of personal objects, of everyday life, around a suitcase from that time, almost suspended in this universe of memories, which conceptually refers to the compression/oppression of human life, to the destruction of the identity of a people. Here, the material becomes a casket of memory, allowing us to touch the past, to preserve it and to consign it to memory, beyond time and space.
time and space.

On the other hand, the Wall of White Soldiers, located in the Room of the Armed Forces, the first in the area dedicated to the geostrategic context, represents hundreds of silhouettes of toy soldiers, all white, all the same, on which the flags and anthems of the 13 nationalities that fought at Cassino run. The idea was to show that, despite their differences, all the combatants were united by the dramatic experience of war.

The Cassino Art Institute also contributed to the decoration of the Hall of Ruins, in particular the former student Angelo Rasile, who created two artistic interpretations on the wall based on verses from Eliot’s “La rocca” and the poem “San Martino del Carso” by Ungaretti.