Picture courtesy Fermynwoods

Exhibition: Fascismo Abbandonato – Fascism in Ruins, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, Kettering, May 10 – July 26 2009.

This striking new exhibition examines some of the extraordinary architectural monuments that artist Dan Dubowitz and Patrick Duerden discovered on the Tuscan and Emilio-Romanian coast.

What started as a series of road trips across Italy has become an intense exploration of the archaeology of the present.

Since 2005, Dubowitz and Duerden have been crossing Northern Italy to track down some of the huge ruins and remains of camps created for the fascist youth programme.

Picture courtesy Fermynwoods

Monumental architecture was the symbol of Italian progress towards modernity under Mussolini's regime between 1922 and 1943, and the modernist camp buildings (colonie), created for the fascistisation of children, were amongst the most progressive and admired of the regime's achievements when they were built.

The fascist regime used the architecture as international propaganda and, unlike the railway system which the fascists were equally proud of, the Colonie were no longer needed after the fall of fascism and most ceased to be used.

Picture courtesy Fermynwoods

The status of the Colonie as architectural achievements of international importance is hardly acknowledged, as their meanings are inexplicably bound up with the nightmare of fascism.

All that remains of the Colonie is a collection of ruins captured in a series of photographic prints accompanied by a commentary on the dialogue that developed on the course of their journey.

For more information visit Fermynwoods online.