resistance and liberations: the first 75 years

resistance and liberations: the first 75 years

rEsistenza2

Inglese version

The cultural legacy of 1945, a stimulus and propellant for global emancipation

April 25, 2020, marks the 75th anniversary of Italy's liberation from Nazism.

This is a very special anniversary for two reasons.

On the one hand, it marks the end of the living historical memory of individuals and bodies—men and women who fought for that Liberation—with the extinction of those generations who personally participated. On the other, it is an anniversary marked by an extraordinary pandemic that has the entire planet engaged in a desperate struggle against a new, more insidious enemy: the elderly, and among them, the few who still carry the living memories of those days, are among the most exposed groups.

These two reasons lead us to consider how important it becomes, even more so starting from this very special anniversary, to begin to reflect on the historical phenomena of the Resistance and Liberation beyond pure historical memory, which, with the disappearance from the scene of those bodies and those living memories, has now undergone its inevitable crystallization.

We believe it's important to begin discussing cultural, as well as historical and political, heritage in terms of Resistance and Liberation. Thus, it seems to us that, where celebrations, anniversaries, and decadal anniversaries often only render that historical memory increasingly obsolete, relying on a rhetoric that, instead of conveying its profound meaning, makes those events increasingly distant and crystallized, we need to consider the cultural legacy of the Resistance and Liberation as something alive, vibrant, and still fruitful, even beyond Italy's borders, where it is celebrated on this April 25th.

It is a cultural heritage that takes many paths, sometimes spurious, far from the objectives that moved men and women in '45, and yet which inexorably looks at those struggles and those objectives, reflects on them and refers to them.

For example, it is a relatively recent phenomenon that sees trade union movements, liberation struggles, and student movements across the planet chorally intone as their own anthem, in Italian but also in any other language, what is mistakenly considered the partisan song par excellence: Bella ciao.

This song, written years after the end of the war, has become an internationalist symbol of all resistance and liberation struggles around the world. But it has also been transformed into a pop song, reinterpreted by countless artists, both unknown and world-famous. It has also become the signature tune of one of the world's most-watched television series. And while Mameli's Risorgimento anthem is sung from Italian balconies, in a concerted effort to feel united amid the confinement of a people under house arrest due to the pandemic, in many parts of the world, those wishing to support and show solidarity with Italy, subjugated by the disease, are singing "Bella Ciao," as the song of international solidarity that Italy has given to the planet.

Beyond historical memories, culture is made up of signs, symbols, and meanings that are passed down and that, even as they change over time and place—indeed, precisely because of this ability to adapt and renew themselves—do nothing but perpetuate and renew its meaning.

The verb "to resist," from which the noun "resistance" derives, undeniably acquired a different meaning and connotation after 1945, not only in Italy but worldwide. The term "Liberation" itself branched out into countless "liberation struggles" linked to the most disparate peoples, genders, and movements. Although seemingly particular and directed against someone or something very concrete, specific, and parochial—an oppressor, a system of values, a method of exploitation—they merely participate in a single, great historical and global uprising of emancipation, which, starting with the Liberation of '45, took on a much more precise and substantial meaning.

For this April 25th we have decided to launch a challenge, dedicating the new issue of Streeen A special feature on Resistance and Liberation that seeks to open up new ways of interpreting this cultural legacy, both historically, with films related to the history of the Italian Resistance and Liberation proper, and by exploring, through films and documentaries, the declinations of the terms and values ​​of Resistance and Liberation as they were subsequently developed in the international social movements and struggles of the post-World War II period, up to the present day, with the human, cultural, social, and health resistance against a global pandemic that affects us all and during which, almost without our realizing it, ethical and political values ​​are collapsing in our country and beyond in the name of an ambiguous and ephemeral security.

"The extent of abdicating one's ethical and political principles is, in fact, very simple: it is a question of asking oneself what is the limit beyond which one is not willing to renounce them.” (Giorgio Agamben – A Question – April 13, 2020)

hello beautiful

Hello beautiful!

International version for April 25, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the Liberation, edited by Mizgin Tahir, Itziar Ituño and Erica Boschiero

LIST OF FILM:

Go to the full homepage of April 25/May 1, 2020 Resistance and Liberations