Rifondare la cultura. Motivi ispiratori dell'arte degli anni Trenta attraverso la rivista "Valori Primordiali"

The concept of "recreating" is at the basis of the most enlightened culture during the fascist era. The yearning towards the future, and the proposal of a new, alternative modernity, as witnessed in the works of eminent cultural and political figures of the 1920s and 1930s - such as Giuseppe Bottai, Antonio Pagano, Sergio Panuzio, as well as writers Massimo Bontempelli and Filippo Tomaso Marinetti – can be connected to the "myths" and ideals of a both a remote and a more recent past: from the primordial origins to the French Revolution.\r\nIn the work of Italian artists of the 1930s, the modern-antimodern conjunction can be assumed as a key to a common cultural matrix that overcomes conventions and stereotypes and accounts for an overcoming not only of the abstract-figurative distinction, but also of categories such as avant-garde and “rappel a l’ordre”. These concepts will be exemplified through the experience of the journal "Valori Primordiali" and the group of Artisti Primordiali Futuristi, in order to show how several motifs in the art, literature and architectural design of the 1930s, regardless of the political ideas of the individual, centered on the theme of the "recreation" of culture and society in general. This also explains forms of art such as mural painting. The inspirational principles of such recreation, which place art as a key element for the understanding of the world, will also be analyzed in continuity with what happened in later years, especially as the drive towards society became indispensable in the forms of art as – to quote a formula from the 1976 Biennial – "a social environment".