La cultura degli Oggetti – The Culture of Things

On 20 and 28 September 2024, on the occasion of the European Heritage Days, Heritage of routes, Networks and Connections, and the Italian theme Patrimonio in cammino, the study seminar La cultura degli Oggetti - The Culture of Things, curated by Paola Cordera and Sandra Costa, addressed to PhD and cycle III students, will also open to citizenship as part of the University of Bologna's III mission.

Not infrequently, and not only in the case of twentieth-century products, the formal or technological value of objects has helped to forge a collective consciousness beyond the community of origin, often becoming part of a dimension of national identity. That of commercial objects and museums, from the earliest manufactures to the present day, is therefore a shared narrative dimension that not only reveals the existence of a vital creative universe, but also embraced and still embraces the social, economic and cultural history of a territory.

The focus will be on the ways in which the history of industrial objects has been proposed in exhibition spaces, examining the different ways in which it has been realised, with the intention of proposing a series of questions on how to try to go beyond a specific typological or brand narrative in order to highlight the value of 'know-how' and the action of the museum, company or industry at the service of society and its development.

The full programme is attached.