
Forgotten Gems with Joshua Cohen
- Cinema
In conversation with Antonio Monda
View details about the event: Forgotten Gems with Joshua CohenAesthetics of Dwelling in Postwar Italy
Overview
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Book presentation
Neorealist Architecture
Aesthetics of Dwelling in Postwar Italy
(Routledge, 2022)
by
David Escudero
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
The author in conversation with
Joan Ockman, Yale University
Alfo G. Aguado, NYU
Event co-sponsored by the
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts
In ENGLISH
After World War II, there was a wave of films made in Italy that came to be labelled “neorealism” and are now regarded as pivotal to world film history. But was neorealism limited to cinema, or did it spread to other spheres of the arts? If so, was there a neorealist architecture?
Neorealist Architecture: Aesthetics of Dwelling in Postwar Italy (Routledge, 2022) explores how neorealism manifested itself in architecture by studying the links between filmmaking and the built environment of postwar Italy (194X-195X). Terms such as “neorealist architecture” or “architectural neorealism” circulated during this period and were used by scholars in the following decades, but they were concepts adopted ad hoc and popularized post hoc. Though internalized by Italian architecture historians, the specific transfers between neorealism —as ethics and aesthetics— and architecture —as potential medium for its embodiment— have remained largely unexplored. Illustrated with over 100 black and white images and archival plans, this book is the first to tackle this topic and provides a new in-depth discussion of the concept of “neorealist architecture.”