Where and when
Stefania Stefanelli in dialogue with Paolo Albani and Nicoletta Maraschio
In collaboration with Accademia della Crusca
No other cultural movement like Futurism has emphasized its link with the world of technology, to challenge the legacy of the past and to affirm the idea of contemporaneity. Between the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century, aviation lived in Italy, as in the rest of the world, the golden period of its development. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti had also anticipated this aspect of modernity in his work: in the founding Manifesto of Futurism (1909), one of the elements that had to inspire Futurist art was precisely “the sliding flight of airplanes”.
The First Italian (Futurist) Aerial Dictionary, edited by Stefania Stefanelli, is the anastatic edition, created by Apice libri, of the Dictionary compiled in 1929 (and then never published again) by Marinetti and Fedele Azari, a man of letters but also an airplane pilot, which constitutes the first systematic collection of a terminology still neglected by traditional dictionaries; the declared aim is to “verbalize the already existing aviation sensitivity”. But since Futurism was above all an eclectically artistic movement, the Dictionary also became functional to the full understanding of the new forms of Futurist art. The presentation of the book will be an opportunity to frame the work in its historical context (the development of the Italian aviation industry), but also in the artistic context (the turn of the second Futurism towards aeropoetry and aeropainting) and in that linguistic (the introduction and affirmation of neologisms related to aviation technique).
Paolo Albani
He is a writer and visual poet. He directs Nuova Tèchne, a magazine of literary and non-literary oddities, published by Quodlibet. Member of the Oplepo (Potential Literature Factory), he is the author of three bizarre encyclopedias published by Zanichelli: Aga magéra difúra. Dictionary of imaginary languages (1994 and 2011; Les Belles Lettres 2001 and 2010); Maybe Queneau. Encyclopedia of Anomalous Sciences (1999) and Mirabiblia. Catalog raisonné of unobtainable books (2003), and with Quodlibet: Dictionary of anomalous institutes in the world (2009), The Italian mattoids (2012), The involuntary humor (2016) and in eBook Curious phenomena (2014); he is also the author of the short story books The Suitor and other short stories (Campanotto 2000), The Lateral Double and other reviews (Edizioni Sylvestre Bonnard 2003) and La goverante di Jevons. Stories of forgotten precursors (Campanotto 2007). Collaborate on Domenica de il Sole 24 ore. His works of visual poetry are exhibited at the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art in Prato, at the Mart in Rovereto and at the GNAM in Rome.
Stefania Stefanelli
She was a researcher at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, she taught at the DAMS in Bologna, at the University for Foreigners of Perugia and at the University of Florence. He has carried out research on the languages of Futurism, the Neo-avant-gardes and contemporary Italian theater. She is a member of ASLI and author of the volumes I Manifesti futuristi. Art and lexicon (Livorno, Sillabe, 2001), Italian goes on stage. The language of theater between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Florence, Cesati, 2006), verbovisive and synaesthetic writing (with Lamberto Pignotti, Udine, Campanotto, 2011). He collaborates with the Accademia della Crusca, for which he also edited the Proceedings of the Conference The Italian language and the theater of diversity (2012).
Nicoletta Maraschio
She has taught History of the Italian Language since 1995 at the Faculty of Arts of the Florentine University. In addition to the Faculty, she has carried out ongoing research at the Italian Grammar Center of the Accademia della Crusca starting from 1974 (the year of its foundation). She was director of the same center and of its magazine “Studi di grammatica italiana” from 2000 to 2008. Appointed academic of the Crusca in 1997, in the same year she joined the Council, to become president of the Academy in 2008. Her Research activity covered different periods and themes in the history of the Italian language: from the language of individual authors, to linguistic reflection from the Renaissance period, from the evolution of the Italian graphic system from the Middle Ages to the present day to the language of the church, up to twentieth-century linguistic themes linked to the great mass media. She has taught abroad as a visiting professor at various European universities, while in the United States she has held numerous lectures. Her recent publications include: City of Italy: post-unification linguistic dynamics, edited together with Emanuele Banfi in 2014 and The Italian language between past and future in 2015.
She is currently honorary professor of the Florentine University, president of the CLIEO Center of Excellence and honorary president of the Accademia della Crusca. He has received various awards and honors especially during the presidency of the Academy. In particular, the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano conferred on her the honor of Grand Officer in 2011.