Federico Fellini Genius of humanity - a tribute to Human Rights

Organized by the Permanent Mission of Italy   

Federico Fellini

Genius of humanity - a tribute to Human Rights

The Permanent Mission of Italy and the United Nations Cultural Activities in cooperation with the Fellini Foundation on the occasion of the election of Italy to the United Nations Human Rights Council present.

 Exhibition Introduction

On the eve of Fellini's 100th Birth Anniversary (2020) the exhibition Federico Fellini genius of humanity proposes to revisit one of the most significant work of the cinema and history of art with three related themes.

1. A world circus: the creative freedom of the artist who transgresses any form of authority or conventional means of expression. Fellini imposed on cinema an essential modernity and limitless imagination. The theme of the circus is the central topic of his movies as a creative space where everything seems to be allowed, the area of liberty and the satire of the contemporary world. From La Strada (1954) to Otto e mezzo (1963), Fellini leaves the neo- realism with its social ideology to express a personal world.

2. The cinema behind the history: with his profound originality and poesy Fellini re-imagines the history from antiquity to contemporary age. His movies propose subjective interpretations of crucial and sensitive periods, such as World War I (E la Naveva, 1983), the radical changes of 1960s or the great fears of the Cold War (La dolce vita,1960), the Roman antiquity (Roma, 1972, Satyricon, 1969). Like Picasso Fellini is a visionary artist of the XXth century who is always questioning us about our memory of past between nostalgia and oblivion.

3. Inside the Maestro’s creative process: an interactive experience. This area is an opportunity for the visitors to approach thanks to a choice of original documents of the Fellini Foundation’s Collection (15’000 items) the creative process of the Maestro, step by step, from inception (drawings, scripts, castings) to the making of the film on the set. Involved into the process of creation the visitors will be able to explore the inspiration and the artistic skills of a demiurge. Fellini is firstly attracted to magnify the life of common people and often rejected persons (La Strada, 1954; Le notti di Cabiria, 1957; Il bidone, 1955). This capacity to transfigure the humanity with such a strong goodwill moves closer Fellini to Chaplin. “He was”, said Federico Fellini at the time Chaplin died, ‘’a sort of Adam from whom we are all descended.’’

The exhibition Federico Fellini genius of humanity presents a choice of original lithographies created by David Lynch for the Fellini Foundation and presented in 2018 at the Fellini Foundation Center in Sion with the title : David Lynch. Dreams - A tribute to Fellini. (www.fondation-fellini.ch)

Film "La Strada"

On Thursday 28 February 2019 at 6:30 p.m., we will show  the movie " La Strada" in A Building, Room XIV at Palais des Nations. You can book the ticket by selecting  "28 February 2019" on Indico.