The Italian Auschwitz Memorial can be visited in Florence

Once again on public view is the Italian Auschwitz Memorial in Florence, at the Ex3 center in Gavignana: it is thework of contemporary art placed in Block 21 of the former extermination camp and later dismantled, designed byANED(National Association of Former Deportees to Nazi Camps) thanks to the collaboration of a group of intellectuals, including architects Lodovico and Alberico Belgiojoso, writer Primo Levi, film director Nelo Risi, painter Pupino Samonà and composer Luigi Nono, who produced one of the world’s first multimedia installations.

Forty years after its installation in the Auschwitz camp, the work is being shown in Florence thanks to a project in which the City of Florence, the Region, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Aned itself, owner of the work, collaborated, with the decisive support of organizations such as the Fondazione Cr Firenze, Firenze Fiera, Unicoop Firenze, Studio Belgiojoso, Cooperativa archeologia. K-Array, Real Time. Aned has created a first exhibition on the history of the memory of Italian deportation over the decades, which can be visited on the ground floor of the facility. From May 9, 2019, the first tours (with mandatory reservations) aimed especially at schools will also kick off; the calendar of openings can be found at cultura.comune.fi.it/memoriale.

The Memorial is one of the first European multimedia works, the result of collective and choral planning; it was inaugurated in Auschwitz in 1980 and at the entrance it features a plaque written by Primo Levi that reads, “Visitor, observe the vestiges of this camp and meditate: from whatever country you come, you are not a stranger. May your journey not have been in vain,may our death not have been in vain. For you and for your children, may the ashes of Auschwitz serve as a warning: let the horrendous fruit of hatred, whose traces you have seen here, give no new seed, neither tomorrow nor ever.” The Memorial consists of a wooden walkway surrounded by a helical spiral inside which the visitor walks as if in a tunnel. The spiral is covered on the inside with a canvas composed of 23 strips painted by Pupino Samonà, following the trace of Primo Levi’s text, while Luigi Nono ’s music entitled Remember what they did to you in Auschwitz rises from the walkway.

The Memorial can be visited free of charge by reservation only with guided tours by MUS.E. The tours will be active as early as Thursday, May 9, Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11 at 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.; Sunday, May 12 in the afternoon at 3:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Tours will then be offered every Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

For individual and group reservations: info@muse.comune.fi.it or 055-2768224; for schools: didattica@muse.comune.fi.it or 055-2616788.

The Italian Auschwitz Memorial can be visited in Florence

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