Tomorrow at 09.30, on the occasion of the celebrations for the "National Unity Day and Armed Forces Day", an exhibition dedicated to the Great War will be inaugurated in the corridor of the "long sleeve" of the Municipality of Bologna.
The review, prepared by the Historical Office of the Army General Staff, intends to recall the events of a hundred years ago, reviving, through photographs, prints and illustrations of the era, the great and tragic story of Italy in arms.
In the 41 months of conflict, from May 1915 to November 1918, over 5.000.000 of Italians served on all fronts.
In this period the soldiers' daily life was overwhelmed and filled by some elements that would have accompanied the image of the war to the end: the grid, the machine gun, the gas, the artillery fire, the plane, the first tanks, the hard permanence in the trenches, the distressing wait for the assault and the close combat to the last blood.
Precisely to these elements of the long period of war the exhibition is addressed, examining and sometimes deepening particularly revealing aspects, such as:
-
the living conditions of the soldier at the front;
-
war in the trench;
-
the contribution of women in the conflict (women who replace men in factories, carnic bearers);
-
technological development of armaments (airships, artillery, airplanes, machine guns, tanks and chemical weapons);
-
war in the mountains;
-
propaganda in its dual aspect (reinforcing the morale of the troops or undermining the morale of the adversary);
-
the red cross;
-
the protection of the artistic heritage (preservation of monuments in cities such as Padua, Venice, Treviso, Milan and Udine);
-
the need, at the end of the war, to build the shrines and cemeteries to eternalize the memory of the fallen to future generations (Redipuglia, Vittoriale).
In conjunction with the exhibition, and to supplement it, the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento will set up an internet station with operators, who will present the portal www.storiaememoriadibologna.it, with particular attention to the scenario dedicated to the Great War of the Bolognese, in order to promote the site "History and Memory of Bologna", a virtual platform created to pass on the history of the many Bolognese who took part in the Great War.
The exhibition, accompanied by numerous illustrations and vintage photos and explanatory texts, will be open until Sunday 12 November, with free admission from 09.00 to 18.00.
