GORIZIA/NOVA GORICA ARCHITECTURE BETWEEN PAST AND MODERNITY

The proclamation of Gorizia and Nova Gorica as European Capitals of Culture 2025 seemed to us an important opportunity to propose the exhibition Architecture between past and modernity Gorizia/Nova Gorica. 

Anyone who has passed through Gorizia and Nova Gorica cannot fail to have been struck by the territory and its architecture.

Investigating this aspect allowed us to analyze the architectural and urban development of the two cities, grasping an intrinsic diversity. Gorizia, symbol of a past linked to the rich Habsburg bourgeoisie, maintains a melancholic, reserved, almost introverted character.

The large buildings and squares remain as evidence of this period.

After the great destruction, in the first post-war period professionals from other Italian cities were called to design important public and private works that combined the old architecture of Gorizia with the "new" architecture born from fascism and often declined with the style of international rationalism. 

Different is the story that in 1947, after the separation of the territory, led to the birth of Nova Gorica. Designed from scratch with the urban plan of Edvard Ravnikar, the city was to be, at the behest of Marshal Tito, the economic and cultural center of the valley, a modern city that was the "socialist" showcase to the Western world.

Two photographers from Friuli capture the characteristic aspects of the cities: Stefano Ciol who presents Gorizia through black and white photography. 

Marco Citron who tells the story of Nova Gorica with his evanescent colors. Sara Florian, GrabGroup Upgrading Cultures Years later came the visits to the homes of some artists, who finally let me enter the fabric of the city, even if from the strange perspective of environments that smelled of painting: sometimes they were the rooms of Palazzo Lantieri occupied by the canvases of Angela Weyersberg; or they were the more domestic spaces of Mario Di Iorio's house, with their muffled chiaroscuro on the edges of a large atrium and the affectionate murmur of a coffee maker.

Of their last paintings I remember - contrasting - the melancholic colors serenely spread in large areas by Angela and the dramatic, gestural black and white of Mario. 

And that distance between color and non-color almost seems to be found, with the roles reversed for the emotional results, in the photographs dedicated to Nova Gorica and Gorizia by Marco Citron and Stefano Ciol. Fulvio Dell'Agnese.

Opening on Friday, 30 May, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Visits available on Saturday and Sunday by appointment.