In The Art of Objects: The Birth of Italian Industrial Culture, 1878-1928 (University of Toronto Press, 2018), Luca Cottini, Associate Professor of Italian Studies at Villanova University, traces the fascinating history of early Italian industrial culture from post-unification Italy to Fascism. In this conversation with Elena Bellina, Lauro De Bosis Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University and Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of Rochester, Cottini describes the transformation of objects such as watches, photographs, bicycles, gramophones, cigarettes, toys, clothes, and furniture from commercial items into aesthetic icons as well as their impact on the formation of Italy’s original industrial culture and Made in Italy.
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