To unmask the subtle misuse of symbols is a project based on the historical analysis of how, in the city of Acqui Terme, the ideology of the Northern League party, who administered the city for almost two decades, has been imposed through precise political decisions, including the use of symbols in the urban space and in public documents, which have been for many citizens completely naturalised. The ideology of the party is not only written in its statute but permeates bodies down to architecture. Acqui T., the city where I grew up, is located in west-north Italy, in the region call Piedmont. In 1992 Acqui Terme has been the first city in the region governed by a Northern League administration.
The project has been presented as a lecture-performance (recordings available on the left) and a photo-installation (19th September 2010) at Palazzo Robellini, a palace owned by the city in front of the Town Hall, which was given cursorily to me. In order to invite the community to join the lecture, I created a Postcard and distribute it in the mailboxes around the city. I decided to use this format because Acqui T. is a touristic city (known because of the thermal baths, since there is a natural thermal spring from which pours water at 74,5°C). The front side of the postcard is a photomontage of the Acqui T. main cathedral, where the Sun of the Alps (symbol of the party) is used instead of the original rose window.
On the back side one can find in green (official colour of the party) the title “Religione politica padana” (Padania political religion); a text which briefly describe how the Northern League ideology subtly permeates our body; in green, a stamp that declare the inauguration of the new “rose window”; the invitation to the lecture-performance. The decision to use religious symbols in combination with the Northern League ones was, among other reasons, because, as Emilio Gentile says in the book “Fra democrazie e totalitarismi”( Laterza, 2001), when a political entity is transformed in a holy entity that is to conceive it has a transcendent, unquestionable, untouchable and it is placed at the center of a system of beliefs, myths, values, rituals, symbols by becoming an object of faith, cult, it is to be considered as a political religion.
The Northern League party represent itself as the political spokesman of Christian values and incorporates in its liturgy the rites of the Catholic Church (defence of the crucifix that shouldn’t move from the traditional sites such as school; anti-Islam campaign; refusal of the minaret; competition for the most beautiful Christmas Crib; Baptism with the Po river water; etc).
This is the answering machine of the town hall of Acqui Terme. The sound in the background is the Giuseppe Verdi’s Va Pensiero, chosen from the North League party as its anthem.
Identity card with green stamp issued in 1999 by the Acqui Terme city administration.
On the walls of the stairway leading to the conference room I installed different photomontages. The original pictures depict the Opera Nazionale Balilla (an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning, as an addition to school education) and Balilla (the name given to the Fascist youth). These pictures have been implemented with the Sun of the Alps, the Northern League’s symbol. The realisation of these photomontages was my reaction to what happened, few days before the presentation, in Adro city, in Brescia’s province, when we witnessed to a scene which took us back in history.
Every corner of the new elementary school, inaugurated at the beginning of the school year from the Northern League major of the city and with a written statement from the minister of education, has been studded with seven hundreds Northern League symbols depicting the Sun of the Alps. It occurs on the roof of the school, on the welcome mat of the school’s main entrance, on the ashtrays, on the desks, on the glass windows, in short, everywhere. Apart from this, the school has been dedicated to Gianfranco Miglio, who along supporting the hypothesis of the transformation of the Italian State into a federal or even confederal unity, is regarded to be Northern League main ideologist.
The political and ideological unity is complete, the question that is urgent to be asked is what kind of history will be taught to the pupils of this school? And also in other schools of the northern Padania?
Every corner of the new elementary school, inaugurated at the beginning of the school year from the Northern League major of the city and with a written statement from the minister of education, has been studded with seven hundreds Northern League symbols depicting the Sun of the Alps. It occurs on the roof of the school, on the welcome mat of the school’s main entrance, on the ashtrays, on the desks, on the glass windows, in short, everywhere. Apart from this, the school has been dedicated to Gianfranco Miglio, who along supporting the hypothesis of the transformation of the Italian State into a federal or even confederal unity, is regarded to be Northern League main ideologist.
The political and ideological unity is complete, the question that is urgent to be asked is what kind of history will be taught to the pupils of this school? And also in other schools of the northern Padania?
One of the photomontage installed on the walls of the stairway leading to the conference room
At the lecture-performance was also distributed a Zine including a text and different visual materials. The text has three parts. Part one the state of things of this ideology, entering each brick in the city and in our head. Part two is what is to be done and how we did it. Part three conclusions.