The Institute for the Study of International Expositions (ISIE) Speaker Series
When
Where
The Italian Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle d’Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (Paris, 1937) serves as a revealing case study of Italian Fascism’s aesthetic and ideological contradictions. Intended to showcase Fascist Italy’s cultural and technological prowess, the pavilion instead highlighted internal fragmentation and international marginalization. This paper examines how the pavilion’s design, blending Rationalist modernism with traditionalist Italianità, reflected Mussolini’s policy of aesthetic diversity while undermining the regime’s effort to define a cohesive Fascist style. Its muted reception, overshadowed by the ideological spectacle of Soviet and German contributions, reflects Italy’s diminishing influence and peripheral role in the international order. Ultimately, the pavilion encapsulates the broader dissonance within Italian Fascist cultural production, offering insight into its role in shaping Italy’s fraught position in pre-World War II Europe.
About the Speaker
The lecture will be presented by Sasha Goldman, PhD in the History of Art and Architecture from Boston University, is Assistant Teaching Professor and Director of Supplemental Academic Services at Northeastern University. She is the Managing Editor of the Center for Italian Modern Art’s Italian Art Journal and is currently working on a book entitled PhD in Progress.
About the ISIE
ISIE is a global interdisciplinary network of researchers interested in the design, promotion, reception, and consequence of the world’s fairs and expositions held since 1851. Though rooted in the history of architecture, science, diplomacy, art, and technology, our members hail from many disciplines and we welcome the participation of all those interested in exploring the many intersecting aspects of international expositions.