Carlo Belli's worlds. From Rovereto to Magna Grecia

Rovereto, which is Carlo Belli's hometown, will host the conference "I mondi di Carlo Belli" ("Carlo Belli's worlds") on 17 and 18 April.The conference investigates Belli's interest for archaeology, which represents a turning point of his eclectic intellectual activity, also on a symbolic level.
From Rovereto to Magna Grecia. This important initiative, which will take place at the Mart - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Rovereto, focuses on the intellectual from Trentino twenty-five years after the last exhibition which the Archivio del '900 (XX century's Archive) dedicated to him.

Carlo Belli(Rovereto, December 6, 1903 - Rome, March 16, 1991) has been investigated on his prominence position in the artistic debate of the 30s, his relationship with the abstract artists and his militancy in favour of the rationalist architecture. Actually, Belli - art theorist and critic, journalist, writer, musicologist and artist, author of "Kn" (which Vasilij Kandinskij defined as "the gospel of abstract art") - is a person full of interests, from art to music, from archaeology to politics.

Thanks to his extended net of relationships, he had a constant and continuous cultural update. Being mate of artists like Fausto Melotti, of intellectuals like Alberto Sartoris, Edoardo Persico and Pietro Maria Bardi, of avant-gard musicians like Alfredo Casella and Gian Francesco Malipiero, of collectors like Pietro Feroldi, Belli travelled a lot in Europe and in the Mediterrean countries, and lived mainly in Rome, but he always kept in touch with his hometown. At the end of his life, he decided to give his own archive to the Province of Trento and to the Mart Museum – which was being founded at that time - being aware of its historical and documentary value.

The conference is the conclusion of an inventory project of the Fondo Carlo Belli (Carlo Belli's archive group),started in 2012, in collaboration with the Civic Museum of Rovereto,and co-financed by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto (Trento and Rovereto's Savings Bank Foundation). The original nucleus of this archive group, kept in the Mart Museum since the beginning of the 90s, was completed by Belli's wife, Paola Zingone, in 2003; another part of the archive, which is property of the Fondazione Sergio Poggianella (Sergio Poggianella's Foundation) is kept at the Fondazione Museo Civico di Rovereto (Civic Museum of Rovereto Foundation). Together with the cataloguing of the library collection kept at the Mart Museum, it’s crucial for the historical research and to delve deeper into one of the greatest italian intellectuals of the XX century.

Documentation of the second half of the century has thus increased and has highlighted Carlo Belli's passion for the issues of South Italy, his knowledge of Puglia, Sicily, Calabria and Lucania and his preference for ancient history and archaeology. The result of this experience are Belli’s works such as "Passeggiate in Magna Grecia. Rive del Sud e Costa Viola" ("Walks in Magna Grecia. South Shores and Purple Coast") and "Il tesoro di Taras" ("Taras' treasure"), as well as the study conferences for Magna Grecia; the first edition took place in 1961 in Taranto.

The first part of the conference is dedicated to Belli's enthusiasm for archaeology: it will take place on April 17 and its title is "Carlo Belli, l'archeologia, la tutela del passato" ("Carlo Belli, archaeology, the preservation of the past"), with the special participation of important archaeologists like Licia Borelli Vlad (central supervisor for archaeology at the MIBAC – Ministero dei Beni e delle attività culturali e del Turismo, i.e. Italy’s Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities), Aldo Siciliano (president of the Istituto per la Storia e l'Archeologia della Magna Grecia - Institute for Magna Grecia's History and Archaeology), Maurizio Paoletti (associate professor of Archeologia Classica dell'Università della Calabria - Classic Archaeology of Calabria University).
The second part will take place on April 18 and it will be about Carlo Belli's interests between past and modernity, with talks on the programme by Giuseppe Appella, Giovanni Marzari and Cosimo Colazzo, who are respectively art, architecture and music historians.

Thanks to Colazzo, musicologist and musician, and great expert of Carlo Belli, the conference will be enhanced by a concert dedicated to him - Musica astratta musa. Omaggio a Carlo Belli (Music, abstract muse. Homage to Carlo Belli) - which will take place on 17 April at 6.30pm, hosted by Associazione Mozart Italia (Mozart Association Italy) at Casa Mozart (Mozart House) at Via della Terra, 48 in Rovereto.

Programme

Friday, April 17
3pm Mart, Conference hall
Welcome
Silvia Arlanch vice president Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto (Trento and Rovereto's Savings Bank Foundation)
Sandro Flaim director of Soprintendenza per i beni culturali della Provincia Autonoma di Trento (Cultural Heritage Directorate of the Autonomous Province of Trento)

First Part: "Carlo Belli, l'archeologia, la tutela del passato" ("Carlo Belli, archaeology, the preservation of the past")
Licia Borelli Vlad central supervisor for archaeology at the MIBAC (Ministero dei Beni e delle attività culturali e del Turismo, i.e. Italy’s Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities)
"Belli o della modestia" ("Belli or of the modesty")
Aldo Siciliano president of ISAMG, Istituto per la Storia e l'Archeologia della Magna Grecia (Institute for Magna Grecia's History and Archaeology)
"Carlo Belli e i convegni di studi sulla Magna Grecia" ("Carlo Belli and the study conferences on Magna Grecia")
Maurizio Paoletti associate professor of Archeologia Classica dell'Università della Calabria (Classical Archaeology of Calabria University)
"Il volto stupendo della vecchia Calabria. Carlo Belli e gli errori della politica" ("Old Calabria’s wonderful face. Carlo Belli and the mistakes of politics")
Franco Nicolis director of Ufficio beni archeologici, Soprintendenza per i beni culturali della Provincia autonoma di Trento (Archaeological Heritage Office, Cultural Heritage Directorate of the Autonomous Province of Trento)
"Immaginazione, virtù poetica, forma letteraria. L'archeologia non canonica di Carlo Belli" ("Imagination, poetic virtue, literary form. Carlo Belli's non-canonical archaeology")

6.30pm Rovereto, Casa Mozart (Mozart House)
Piano concert
Musica astratta musa. Omaggio a Carlo Belli (Music, abstract muse. Homage to Carlo Belli)
Cosimo Colazzo, piano
with the collaboration of Maria Rosa Corbolini and Giovanni Todaro

Saturday, April 18
9am Mart, conference hall
Welcome
Tiziano Mellarini Councillor responsible for Culture of the Autonomous Province of Trento
Ilaria Vescovi Mart Museum’s president, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (Museum of modern and contemporary art of Trento and Rovereto)

Second part: Carlo Belli tra passato e modernità (Carlo Belli between past and modernity)
Giuseppe Appella art historian
"Carlo Belli e il Mediterraneo" ("Carlo Belli and the Mediterrean")
Giovanni Marzari architect
"Arte e Mito, le pieghe della storia. Settant'anni di dialogo fra Belli e Melotti" ("Art and Myth, history trends. Seventy years of dialogue between Belli and Melotti")
Cosimo Colazzo musician, teacher of Composition, Conservatorio Bonporti di Trento (Bonporti Conservatory of Trento)
"Carlo Belli e la musica" ("Carlo Belli and music")
Franco Finotti, Eleonora Zen director and researcher, Fondazione Museo Civico di Rovereto (Civic Museum of Rovereto's Foundation)
"Un sito per Carlo Belli" ("A website for Carlo Belli")
Nadia Solai archivist
"Il Fondo Carlo Belli" ("Carlo Belli's Collection")

Testimonies
Friends and acquaintances remembering Carlo Belli
Free entry