Everyone Wants to Belong: Reflections on Nationalism, Italian Cultural Politics and The Venice Biennale 2024

This will be a discursive essay, discussing the history and recent revival of nationalism in an Italian context. It will address the interface between the arts and politics in 20th century Italian history, and how technological modernity was ideologically conflated with fascism. It will contain a section reviewing the 2024 Venice Biennale, considering how well the exhibited works illuminated its curatorial themes, and whether, generally, such overarching themes enhance our visual experience. The discussion will then return to an examination of definitions offered for the nationalist Right, and follow this up the present, in the light of appointments made to cultural positions by the present Italian government, particularly its appointment of the new Director of the Biennale. It will reference such notable Italian thinkers as Niccolo Machiavelli, Benedetto Croce, Antonio Gramsci and Umberto Eco.