Furnishing Fascism

The role of modernist interior design in the construction of Italian nationalism Along with the rise of Mussolinis fascist regime, the interwar years in Italy also saw the widespread development of its modernist interior design and furnishing practices. While the regimes politics were overtly manifest in monumental government architecture, Furnishing Fascism examines the subtler role of household goods and decor in the cultivation of Italys sense of national identity. Presenting a fresh look at the work of various architects and designers, including iconic figures such as Gio Ponti and Carlo Enrico Rava, Ignacio G. Galn explores how seemingly benign products of everyday life contributed to the propagation of fascist ideology. Through extensive promotion in popular magazines and department stores, on the film sets of Cinecitt Studios, and throughout the countrys colonial territories, Italys modernist design practices were part of a larger political project that aimed to produce a totalizing image of cultural hegemony. Interweaving interior design theory, architectural history, and film scholarship, Furnishing Fascism reexamines the periods so-called minor arts to reveal the entanglement of modernist aesthetics and nation-building in early twentieth-century Italy and offers valuable insight into the complications of artistic production under the auspices of authoritarian power.