Temi e vicende della decolonizzazione nelle ricerche verbovisive italiane

Abstract

Themes and events of decolonization in Italian visual poetry. The article explores the presence of anticolonial struggles and new forms of colonialism in Italian visual poetry between the 1960s and the 1970s. An analysis of works by Ketty La Rocca, Lucia Marcucci, Eugenio Miccini, Luciano Ori and Adriano Spatola reveals not only the pervasive presence of the Vietnam War – during which the United States became a real emblem of imperialism – but also a more articulated geography of the struggles for liberation, both in Africa and in Latin America. Visual poets, in fact, were able to combine research on expressive languages with ideological commitment: the deconstruction of the codes of commercial and mass communication leads to political criticism, even internationally. Guerrilla is not only a linguistic approach: it has also evident political content, with strong internationalist significance.