War. A tale in images

This video-essay recounting the artistic representations of war, from prehistoric times to the modern age. This long path has been marked since the origins of human expression in prehistoric times, and enriched over time with inspiring principles and values shared by the communities concerned. The forms of representation vary from allegory to explicit narrative, sometimes gory and grotesque even, guiding the viewer in a critical reading intended to exalt or condemn the violent act.

Artists directly engaged in wartime events between the Risorgimento and World War I change perspective, placing the lived experience of the protagonists at the centre and thus introducing disillusionment and detachment from the rhetoric of the past. The journey culminates with the judgement, without appeal, of condemnation of war, of every war, which is forever denied any form of representation. To the war chronicles of the television networks, art can no longer oppose explicit descriptions or narratives, but rather solicitations of consciences: and decisive condemnations that, as such, work on absence and emptiness. This work rests on silence, not on words.

Fulvia Strano (1959, Rome, Italy) has always been involved in artistic communication. She has worked as an art historian and iconographic researcher for many cultural institutions, including Civita Association, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, Laterza Publisher, DeAgostini Publisher, and Dante Alighieri Society. She is an art history consultant for the television station TV2000. From 2015 to 2022 she was Head of Mediation and Educational Services at the Museum of Rome, Capitoline Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.