His face on a school: this is how Bologna remembers Giacomo Matteotti
It is the first of the initiatives dedicated to the socialist deputy who died 100 years ago at the hands of fascists, who studied and graduated right under the Two Towers
BOLOGNA – The face of Giacomo Matteotti and one of his phrases, taken from an article published in 1908: “Love for the community must spread among us”. With the inauguration of this mural on the façade of the Copernico high school, in Bologna, the program of cultural initiatives opens that the Municipality, University and Gramsci Emilia-Romagna Foundation have decided to dedicate to the socialist deputy, who graduated from the Alma Mater, on the centenary of his assassination by fascists on 10 June 1924. The mural, promoted by the Gramsci Foundation, bears the signature of Chekos’art, aka Francesco Ferreri, who in 2017 had already created the work dedicated to Antonio Gramsci on the wall of the Aldini Valeriani institute.
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LEPORE: “IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE A FIGURE LIKE THIS ON A SCHOOL”
The street artist was chosen because “his signature are these very large and recognizable faces in which he inserts slightly more pop elements, such as these colorful graphics – explains Virginia Todeschini of the Gramsci Foundation – to get closer to the new generations” . The story of Matteotti, “through his sacrifice and his martyrdom – underlines the mayor Matteo Lepore – is a story of fight against inequalities, for democracy and for a future that was finally given into the hands of the new generations< /strong> so that they could represent our country, which is why it is so important to have the figure of Matteotti in front of a school”. A sort of generational passing of the baton, given that the youthful years in Bologna were for Matteotti “the years of training alongside masters who shaped him and contributed to his curiosity and his political thought”, recalls Maria Teresa Guerrini, scientific director of the European Student Museum (Meus) of the Alma Mater.
“A LIGHT TO FOLLOW, THE SHADOW OF FASCISM IS ALWAYS AROUND THE CORNER”
The figure of Matteotti “must be a light to follow – states a spokesperson for Copernicus’ students – especially in modern times, because it seems that the shadow of fascism is always hiding around the corner and therefore it is important to remember this” . Among the subsequent initiatives planned, on 10 June the Municipality will celebrate the anniversary of Matteotti’s death with the placing of a plaque in the house in via Fondazza where he lived during his student years and then the evening lighting of a light installation along the bridge that bears his name, next to the station: “We are for the most complete and absolute freedom for everyone”, is the quote from Matteotti that will be the protagonist in this case.
Also on June 10, the Gramsci Foundation will publish a video interview with the historian Mirko Grasso on Matteotti in Bologna. The University, then, has several public meetings planned for the autumn and the exhibition “Of elite intelligence and a good soul: Matteotti student of the University of Bologna”, which can be visited at the Meus in via Zamboni 33 from 7 November (the day he graduated in 1907) until 3 January (the date of the speech with which Benito Mussolini in 1925 assumed the “political, moral and historical” responsibility for what happened in the previous months, including the killing of the socialist parliamentarian).