The Future Was Then: The Changing Face of Fascist Italy

In a fascist movement inspired by art, how does the fascist government influence the artists living in its grasp? This exhibition explores how Benito Mussolini’s government created a broad-reaching culture that grew with and into the Futurist movement to claw into advertising, propaganda, and the very heart of the nation he commanded. 

Featuring 75 pieces from the world-renowned Fondazione Massimo e Sonia Cirulli in Bologna, Italy, this expansive exhibition chronicles the length of Mussolini’s regime, focusing on the often blurred line between propaganda and art.

B.A. Van Sise is a photographic artist, author, and curator, primarily focused on the intersection between language and the visual form. Previously a journalist for the Village Voice and Newsday, he is also the author of Children of Grass: A Portrait of American Poetry with Mary-Louise Parker, Invited to Life: After the Holocaust, and On the National Language: the Poetry of America’s Endangered Tongues with DeLanna Studi and Crisosto Apache. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at the Centro Millepiani in Rome and Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, and in major solo exhibitions at the Center for Creative Photography, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Woody Guthrie Center, and the Skirball Cultural Center. Italian-born, he splits his time between New York City and Rome.