SU Florence presents joint initiative ‘Monument to Legality’ to city of Florence
The Region of Tuscany and the Association for the Families of the Victims of Via dei Georgofili recently invited SU Florence to present the project ‘Streets of Legality,’ an ongoing initiative where SUF sculpture students, together with their Italian counterparts from various art institutes in Florence, are working on a monument dedicated to the victims of the 1983 Mafia bombing in Via dei Georgofili, Florence.
The Region of Tuscany and the Association for the Families of the Victims of Via dei Georgofili recently invited SU Florence to present the project ‘Streets of Legality,’ an ongoing initiative where SUF sculpture students, together with their Italian counterparts from various art institutes in Florence, are working on a monument dedicated to the victims of the 1983 Mafia bombing in Via dei Georgofili, Florence.
The project is a joint initiative organized by SUF and Tuscany’s Department of Education, in collaboration with four Italian art institutes, and began with an agreement to increase the awareness of students on issues of legality through didactic activities.
SUF Director Barbara Deimling presented the project as part of the city-wide anniversary events commemorating the sixteenth anniversary of the victims of the attack, which received national press coverage. “The issue of legality is not confined to Italy,” said Deimling. “Rather, it is an issue that involves the international community, and it is important for our students to understand the value and implications of legality.” SUF’s efforts in sensitizing its students to the theme of legality began in spring 2006 when the university hosted a conference entitled “Mafia and Legality” with the participation of high profile figures in the fight against organized crime, including former Antimafia Attorney General, Pier Luigi Vigna and Vice President of the Tuscan Regional Goverment, Federico Gelli. In spring 2007, SUF began sending student volunteers to Corleone, helping farmers of the cooperative “Lavoro e Non Solo” reclaim land confiscated from the Mafia. To date almost 200 students have contributed their time and energy, both through class-related field studies and the SUF volunteer program ‘Seeds of Legality.’
SUF Professors Natalia Piombino and Marco Fallani, in collaboration with the professors from the art institutes, decided in a series of meetings to build a monument to the victims of the 1983 Mafia bombing in Florence, whereby each student was to create a clay brick with a personal interpretation of the theme of the Mafia, all of which would be put together to construct the monument.
Italian and American students began work on the creation of the bricks during the fall 2008 and spring 2009 semesters. The work was documented and the project was presented in an exhibit at the Region’s Festa della Legalità, an annual event promoting legality for youth.
Fall 2009 will see sculpture students involved once again in the project, after which all of the bricks will then be assembled to complete this unique monument. Although the final decision is still open as to the location for the monument, as well as to the ultimate constructed form the bricks will take, Gelli is advocating SUF’s proposal: several tall monoliths, to be collocated in a circular pattern, in front of Florence’s new courthouse, the Palazzo della Giustizia.
