Rivista "IBC" XI, 2003, 4
Dossier: L'IBC per l'Europa
musei e beni culturali, territorio e beni architettonici-ambientali, biblioteche e archivi, dossier /
The IBC - Istituto per i beni artistici culturali e naturali (Institute for artistic, cultural and natural heritage) of Emilia-Romagna has a long-established tradition of collaborations at a European level - and not only. Well before the European political landscape had come to be shaped to its present structure, the Institute had already opened to foreign countries. Therefore, its initiatives and actions do not necessarily correspond to the layout of European Community programmes and their related projects as they were put into effect in the mid-1990s and now govern to a great extent the international activity of any institution.
In the 1980s, the IBC, that had been set up in the previous decade, implemented extremely innovative policies regarding cultural heritage issues. Since then, the model drawn up by Emilia-Romagna for the management of the cultural heritage in the broad sense has been exported thanks to conferences as well as to political and technical meetings. Those are the years of the Salon International des Musées et des Expositions (SIME), in Paris. In 1988 and 1990 the Institute's presence at the exhibition was intended to promote the extension of the semantic area of the word "cultural asset" itself. Local cultural heritage was introduced to operators from all over the world and to the public at large. The heritage did not necessarily refer to outstanding objects of great artistic value - as often required in those years - but testified to human action throughout history. In 1992, the attention was focused on the then rising sector of cultural tourism.
At an international level, the research work carried out in that decade by the Institute on historic centres was a trump card. The international meeting on the preservation of historic cities, held in Bologna in 1983, paved the way to four exhibitions that toured the world, namely I confini perduti, L'artigianato: i suoi modelli culturali e la città storica, L'altro Mediterraneo, Paolo Monti fotografo e l'età dei piani regolatori. In this respect, the research methods devised by the Institute have since represented a touchstone for almost all research in this field at both national and European level and is still a starting point for the setting of cataloguing standards for town planning. At the same time, the research model for seismic risk was exported from Greece to Portugal, while the exhibition Architettura e terremoti (Architecture and earthquakes) was staged throughout Europe.
In the same decade, the magnificent exhibitions on Guido Reni and the Carracci family brought paintings from the bolognese school all over the world. Along with such major events, other interesting and successful initiatives were being organised, which made our many library assets to be known worldwide. It was thus possible to put together the many forms of expressions opted for by an artist, like for example Cesare Zavattini, whose books, pictures, letters and storyboards, together with some of his films in the restored version - the first outcomes of the classification work done on the Archivio Zavattini, that was to find a permanent location in the Biblioteca Panizzi in Reggio Emilia - were showed in an exhibition called Ciao Zavattini. The event, organised by the Soprintendenza per i beni librari e documentari (Office for books and documentary heritage) in collaboration with other institutions, took place in the Centre Pompidou in Paris and after that in a number of Spanish cities.
In the same way, the Institute participated in Bologne Toulouse, deux villes une culture, a project by the City Councils of Bologna and Toulouse that put together the cultural production of the two cities, from architecture to literature, from poetry to information. The exhibition Alma Mater Librorum, that took place on the ninth centenary of the athenaeum and illustrated nine centuries of bolognese editions brought for the University Bologna knowledge from Frankfurt to Spain, from St. Petersborough to Tokyo. Again in the 1980s an analytic census of the region's historic theatres was made, and again the ensuing exhibition was hosted by many European cities, such as Strasbourg, Belfast and Prague where it was also awarded an important prize.
That of restoration is another field in which the Institute has, from the very beginning, collaborated with other European institutions and research centres. There has been, for instance, close co-operation with the Carnavalet Museum - and with the former head of the atelier de restauration Madame Anne Cartier-Bresson in particular - on the restoration of photos. In this respect, the exchange of experience between IBC and the Centre de recherches sur la conservation des documents graphiques (CRCDG) has led to the organization of two documentary exhibitions within the framework of RESTAURO 1991 and 2003. Collaboration with the Abegg-Stiftung Foundation based in Berne and the Musée Historique des Tissus in Lyon on the restoration of textiles, were preliminary to the opening of the exhibition Capolavori restaurati dell'arte tessile.
In those years, close and enriching relations were developed also with Russia. Already on establishment of the Institute a multivision show on art in Emilia-Romagna was staged contemporarily at Bologna's Teatro Comunale and in Moscow. These contacts broadened the concept of cultural heritage. The Soprintendenza gave its contribution with the exhibition on Scheiwiller, the publisher, as well as with Disegnare il libro, that outlined the history of Italian editorial graphics after the second world war. Graphic design and print, intended as fundamental aspects of a book or document in general, were also the subject of the Italian exhibition on the development of Russian typography. Thanks to close collaboration with the Majakovskij Museum, a number of drawings, manuscripts, photographs and books were collected for Cari compagni posteri: Vladimir Majakovskij 1893-1993, a documentary exhibition that took place in Bologna. Similar criteria were adopted for the arrangement of the 1996 exhibition on Anna Achmatova, in which the relation between the artist and the city, between nostalgia and everyday life was represented. The link with Russia allowed the IBC to carry out outstanding initiatives among which Gli architetti italiani a San Pietroburgo, Il fanciullo di vetro. Peter Il' ic Caijkovskij a San Pietroburgo and, following the music, the recent exhibition La forza e il destino. La fortuna di Verdi in Russia.
So vast is the number of exhibitions staged abroad that they cannot all be reported here. However, it may be worth mentioning Emilia-Romagna's participation in the international EXPO 92 Seville with an archaeological overview of the origins of the region, called Antiche vie.
Parallel to and often in connection with this trend, scientific collaboration with the main bodies and institutions in Europe and worldwide was consolidated, leading to regular exchange of knowledge and experience that was later to result in the implementation of European projects. Visibility of the scientific activities is made possible also by participation in international meetings and sector-specific expos like those connected to the world of publishing. This is especially true when our country is in the spotlight, and a curious and motivated public from all over the world - from Europe to South America - can be introduced to the culture of Emilia-Romagna.
As regards dialogue with far away countries, there has been fruitful collaboration with the Biblioteca Nacional José Martì in the Havana and the Biblioteca Angelica of the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali (Ministery of cultural heritage and activities) regarding the international project Itinera per Indias Occidentales. In 2002, the Soprintendenza provided the Cuba-based library with a software for cataloguing their ancient maps, together with the advice and training for the correct use of such tool, that allows users to access data and view images. Prior to that, technical and scientific support had been offered to the National Library in Maputo, soon after the Mozambique civil war.
At a European level the relation with the Land Hessen is now strategic for the Emilia-Romagna Region. Constant comparison on policies and management of cultural heritage ensures the development of skills at a regional level as well as the assimilation of the knowledge acquired through international work. IBC is the only Italian institution that participates to a European statistical study in relation to museums. The workgroup, that is part of a committee for analysing statistic flows within the EU, is studying statistic data regarding museums produced by member states, with a view to standardising methods so that the definition of policies can be based on homogeneous scientific data shared by all partners.
In this issue an overview of thirty years of international relations of IBC is outlined and current European projects are described. The first part is devoted to Europe and the cultural heritage, with particular reference to the regional policies; the second part is an account of the projects financed within the framework of European programmes.
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