Inhabited Dissonance – Bozen Bolzano 1922-2025

Inhabited Dissonance: Bozen Bolzano 1922-2025 is an interdisciplinary analysis of the city of Bolzano undertaken as part of the research project "Curating Bolzano Fascist Legacies. A Sustainable Approach to a City's Dissonant Heritage" (2022-2025) and developed at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bolzano.
The research retraces the histories and examines the afterlives of Fascist-era architectural remnants that still pervade the city's public spaces today. Contemporary Bolzano is indeed a particularly fascinating object of study in this respect. On the one hand, it is a border city, mainly built during the Fascist regime, where heterogeneous perceptions of the city's architectural past co-exist. On the other hand, it is a city where local institutions have been extensively committed to meaningful interventions to recodify their own Fascist heritage.
Drawing on this complexity, Inhabited Dissonance sets out to offer a reflection aimed at developing curatorial strategies for an exhibition at the Galleria Civica of Bolzano in October 2025. The book brings together the views of historians, historians of art, architecture and design, and designers.