Venezia e il fascismo: Musei, mostre e mercato (Venice, 7-9 Oct 26)Venice, Oct 7–09,2026 Deadline: Jan 18, 2026

Venice and Fascism: Museums, Exhibitions, and the Art Market

Early 20th-century Venice was a city in transformation, poised between the celebration of its glorious past and the negotiation of a difficult path toward modernity. The advent of the Fascist regime in 1922 gave new impetus to the modernization project launched in the 1910s under the aegis of the “Venetian group” (notably Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata and Vittorio Cini). The city’s cultural elites, in turn, saw in Fascism the opportunity to revive the hegemonic ambitions of Adriatic nationalism.

For the regime, Venice was above all a showcase in which to stage Italy’s cultural primacy within Europe. Alongside major infrastructural works – such as the construction of the motorway bridge linking the city to the mainland – new cultural initiatives emerged, including the strengthening of the newly-nationalized Venice Biennale under Volpi’s presidency, who also promoted the creation of the Venice Film Festival in 1932. In those years, the same group of power conceived the project of the “Grande Venezia”, driven by an expansionist vision culminating in the development of the industrial hub of Marghera and the tourist resort of the Lido. At the same time, the creation of new museums (and the reorganization of existing ones) represented an attempt by the Superintendency led by Gino Fogolari with the support of the Municipality of Venice to respond to the gradual disintegration of Venice’s historic private collections, within a broader strategy that blurred the boundaries between the ephemeral and the permanent.

In the final years of the regime, following the relocation to the lagoon of part of the governmental apparatus of the newly founded Italian Social Republic, Venice became a symbolic city of Fascism – a center both of protection (through the storage of artworks evacuated from the mainland starting in September 1943) and of dispersion of cultural assets (through the confiscation of Jewish-owned art collections under the racial laws).

This conference aims to investigate the cultural, historical, and political identity of Fascist Venice through the lens of exhibitions, museums, and the art market. In contrast to the existing scholarship – largely focused on the role of the Biennale and contemporary art – we adopt a broader and more integrated perspective on the history of collecting, including not only artistic collections, but also archaeological, ethnographic, natural history, and cultural-history collections. Through this expanded approach, we intend to foster an interdisciplinary reflection on how Fascism shaped Venice’s cultural landscape through the interrelation of art history, colonialism, and political and economic history.We invite proposals that offer original interpretations of Venice’s cultural policy during the Fascist period, addressing the history of collections, the circulation of objects, the city’s networks and cultural strategies. Priority will be given to contributions that go beyond individual case-studies to explore broader, transversal issues, including but not limited to:

- The intertwined histories (exhibitions, acquisitions, donations, and bequests) and provenance research of public and private Venetian collections between transformation, dissolution, and renewal;-

Institutions, artworks, and individuals: the networks of affiliation, alliance, and opposition among the actors shaping Venice’s cultural sphere;

- Sites and itineraries of trade, display, and preservation, with particular attention to the role of the tourist industry in shaping the urban topography of the “Greater Venice”;

- The ideology of Venezianità

– in both its secular and Catholic dimensions

– in the history of taste through artistic production, conservation, and restoration, with special attention to its material implications;

- Venice at war: the impact of antisemitic policies on the city’s cultural life, and the fate of its artistic heritage between protection and dispersal, Venice as a cultural center of the Italian Social Republic;

- Venice over time: the “long Fascism”, continuities and ruptures in the Venetian cultural scene before 1922 and after 1945;

- Venice across space: the transnational dimension of Venetian heritage, with special attention to the Adriatic context.

Presentations will last 20 minutes and may be delivered in Italian or English. A selection of papers will be considered for publication in the conference proceedings. Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered for the duration of the conference. We are also considering the possibility of offering on-site childcare; those interested are invited to indicate this in their application.

Please submit your proposal (max. 300 words, in English or Italian) and a short biographical note (max. 100 words) by 18 January 2026 to: m.cartolari@zikg.eu, fcast@iuav.it, k.huelsvalenti@dhi-roma.it.

Organisation and conception: Matilde Cartolari, Francesca Castellani, and Katharina Hüls-Valenti