Trialogue is an imaginary conversation between three historical figures: Lina Bo Bardi, Pietro Maria Bardi and Giuseppe Spatrisano raising questions about architects ‘social responsibility, culture as a colonial tool, and sexism in architecture.
The script is sets in Casa del Mutilato, a fascist building in Palermo, Sicily, where the building’s architect, Giuseppe Spatrisano receives a visit from the couple Lina Bo Bardi and Pietro Maria Bardi to show the great masterpiece of his professional career.
During the fascist regime in Italy, architecture played a crucial role in shaping national identity. Architecture was a political tool used as mass propaganda to diffuse the philosophy of the regime and glorify the dictator, Benito Mussolini. Whereas buildings were an important engine for the approval and advance of Mussolini ideas, architects were never ever questioned on their responsibility on promoting the fascist regime. Actually, the opposite, modernism or called it fascist architecture in Italy is a notorious acclaimed period of clean and pure form in architecture history. The question is how to deal with this heritage in the Italian built environment nowadays after the collapse of the fascist regime.
Can architects discuss that fascist heritage beyond the pure beauty of it forms? Considering that heritage strongly attached to political ideology can it preservation or re-use seek reparation from its historical past?
Reflecting on Eichmann trial, Hannah Arendt presented the concept of the banality of the evil and posed questions where the personal responsibility under authoritarian regimes lays. She interrogates “what would happen to any of these forms of government if enough people would act “irresponsibly” and refuse support?” Architects very often explain themselves in the same way as Eichmann did, ‘I was doing my profession’. So, what are the ethics and political ideology behind forms? Can architects take social responsibility on their design? What if architects would face a trial for their good but harmful design?
Trialogue collects quotes and real facts from the existing characters articulating their positions in a trial atmosphere, which there is not one accuser and one defendant, but it is a judgment on morality in the practice of architecture.
Trialogue was presented at Manifesta 12 during the International Symposium for the Critical Re-use of the Casa del Mutilato in Palermo, Sicily (2018), at the annual exhibition of Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Studies (2018) at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, and at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Italian Cultural Institute) in Stockholm (2019).
