Edition 2015: Cities and war

Due to the celebrations for the Centenary of the First world war, the first edition of the Festival In\Visible Cities is dedicated to the topic “cities and war”. Some sections of the Festival will investigate the ways through which multimedia art and new digital technologies can contribute towards the reflection on this theme. The aim is to make history emerge, together with memories conserved in cities, streets, buildings and also inside domestic spaces. This will be a wide reflection about the impact of wars on urban spaces and people living there.

During the First world war Gorizia found itself just in the centre of the conflict, both from a militar point of view and a symbolic one. The city rises along the banks of the river Isonzo, where twelve terrible battles between Italians and Austro-Hungarian did happen in 1915-1918. The city belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire when in 1916 it was conquered by the Italians; then it was taken back by the Austrians after the Caporetto battle and became definitely an Italian city in 1918.

For these happenings Gorizia is often considered to be a “holy city” by the literature of war and by the propaganda, being a symbol of the victory. Nevertheless, it is also said to be “Gorizia the damned” for the high number of victims who died to conquer or defend it. This double status of the city (holiness and damnation) shows the complexity of the relation between a urban area and the war happenings, both on the military level and on the imaginary one.