Cynthia Madansky

Cynthia Madansky

Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize
September 8, 2014–July 31, 2015
Profession
Artist, New York
Project title
E42
Project description

E42 is a cinematic exploration of the Esposizione Universale di Roma (EUR). Originally designed as a monumental space for public performance and collective acts of solidarity to the Fascist regime of Mussolini, this landscape was in fact never inaugurated. In the 1960s the area was recuperated and today projects a timeless aura of an unfinished and temporary, monumental and ephemeral landscape. E42 examines the psychological complexity of the EUR reflecting on the diverse interpretations of this space by people who live, work, and visit this site. The film explores the original ideology of the EUR as a site of scenography a stage of interaction between people and architecture, reflecting on contemporary issues of historical decontextualisation and revisionism, collective memory and collective (un)conscious, while illuminating the challenges and processes of preserving, and shifting collective knowledge over time in a space that was intended to be the perfect Fascist city.