The Venice Palazzo Vittoriano Museum (VIVE) and the Federation of Exile Associations of Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia signed today at the Ministry of Culture in Rome an agreement for the hosting of a temporary exhibition on the Escape of Julian at Palazzo Vittoriano -Dalmatia, pending the construction of a memorial museum in the capital.
Those present included the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano; Director of VIVE, Edith Gabrielli; President Federer Sully, Renzo Kodalin; Honorary Chairman of Federesuli, Giuseppe de VergotiniMinister Plenipotentiary Michelle RampazzoCoordinator for Minorities and Exiles.
The agreement provides that VIVE will provide the space on the first floor of the Vittoriano, while the Federation of Exile Societies will develop scientific and museum projects, share the operational stages with the Vittoriano and create exhibitions, whose entries will be free.
In recent days, Minister Sangiuliano proposed the signing of the convention on the occasion of the 18 anniversary of the massacre of Vergarola near Pora, on June 1946, which left about 100 Italians dead, a third of them children. The story of the latter, still shrouded in many mysteries and without the identification of the culprit, will be at the center of Vittoriano’s exhibition and, subsequently, that of the museum.
“This exhibition is the first and important step towards the creation in Rome of a Museum of Memory dedicated to the memory of the Italian Foibian martyrs massacred by Tito’s blind communist violence. Thanks to an agreement with the Federation of Exile Associations, we will be presenting in Vittoriano an exhibition that will focus on the black hole of memory associated with the exiles, in a location of great symbolic importance and at the heart of national identity. The Istrians, Fumers and Dalmatians left their lands after the Second World War. With this exhibition we continue to restore the due visibility and, above all, the due dignity and memory to the Foibian tragedy, after so much silence.Minister Sangiuliano said.
“The Vittoriano was built to honor the memory of the first King of Italy through the values of national unity and civil liberties. These founding values remain intact in the republican system and in today’s European reality. The Vittoriano Museum, which attracts more than four million visitors a year, is a monument that tells the story of Italy and Italians in moments of triumph and pain. Many important exhibitions in the past have proven this. The agreement signed today with FederEsuli is intended to commemorate an extremely painful historical event for thousands of our compatriots and for the entire Italian people. As Director, I remain convinced that the Vittoriano will be up to this institutional, civic and moral task while awaiting the creation of the Memorial Museum.” Director Gabrielli said.
“The signing of this agreement confirms the new spirit of cooperation between Federesuli and the institutions, especially the Ministry of Culture. The exhibition in Vittoriano is an important and ambitious project for which I can only thank Director Gabrielli and Minister Sangiuliano, whose sensitivity to our history is a harbinger of great results.”, declared President Kodalin.
