Commemorating historical events through works of art is a difficult task, as the public has become accustomed to instant media information with which the artist inevitably has to compete. It is even more complex to address a tragedy like the Nazi massacre of Monte Sole, long suppressed from history and collective consciousness. These themes are explored by Anna Valeria Borsari in the book Fuori dal monumento.

The eponymous video documents the performance, promoted by the Ente del Parco Storico di Monte Sole and sponsored by the Comune di Bologna, carried out by the artist in Piazza Maggiore in Bologna on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the massacre. In the square, numerous different flyers were distributed by hand by some young people, or fell from above with the noise of a war helicopter, featuring archival images of the inhabitants of Monte Sole captured during previous festive moments, written testimonies from some survivors of the massacre, and contemporary images of those same places.

The many people present by chance were given no particular instructions or responses. There was deliberately no prior communication about the event, also aimed at provoking an emotional reaction to fragments of a tragedy now distant in time.

Anna Valeria Borsari’s work, which from the beginning has engaged with the urban environment using various tools, has in the last decade consistently focused on social issues. The artist has always accompanied her research with theoretical writings. She lived in Bologna, where she taught Romance Philology at the university until 1994, and has lived and worked in Milan for several years.