Description
The recital consists of three parts: "The Shoes", "The Bodies" and "The Memory of Matter". Giuliano Comin's voice will lead the audience on a journey through the "tangible" traces of the Great War, starting with a pair of straw boots used a century ago in the Austro-Hungarian emplacement of Punta Linke, near Cima Vioz, in the Ortles-Cevedale group at 3,629 metres above sea level, on the highest front of the First World War. In the narrative, the bodies, objects, and clothing of the soldiers alternate in an exciting balance between emotional knowledge and historical reconstruction.
"Conflict archaeology: what remains of the Great War" intends to be a popular reflection on the ultimate meaning of "conflict archaeology", which seeks to understand the relationship between the remnants of what has been and the way we want - or do not want - to integrate them and recognise them in the present. The encounter of the arts with the discipline of archaeology is also a way of helping to make it - in the high sense of the term - popular, to unveil new and contemporary aspects of it, together with functions that are even more complex and fascinating than those usually attributed to it.
The archaeology of the Great War is a relatively new and innovative discipline on the Italian scene. For some years now, the retreat and melting of the Trentino glaciers caused by the climatic emergency have brought archaeologists to what was the highest front of the First World War at an altitude of over 3,000 metres. The interventions, carried out using the archaeological method by multidisciplinary teams of archaeologists, geologists, mountain guides and restorers, involved the recovery of structures, such as the cableway that re-emerged from the ice at Punta Linke, and objects, but also and above all the remains of soldiers that had emerged from the ice and had been discovered by chance by hikers at the high altitudes of the Presena glacier and on the western slopes of the Corno di Cavento in the Adamello Group. A not easy and delicate task to restore to the collective memory pieces of history and micro-histories and to pay homage to those who were, in spite of themselves, protagonists of these tragic events.
Information
Autonomous Province of Trento
UMSt Superintendency for Cultural Assets and Activities
Archaeological Heritage Office
Via Mantova, 67 - 38122 Trento
tel. 0461 492161