Archivissima 2020 goes digital with #WOMEN theme

Archivissima, the Italian festival dedicated to historical archives, returns for its third edition from June 5 to 8, 2020, entirely online due to the health emergency. Born in Turin in 2017 from the Notte degli Archivi, the festival expands beyond Turin with a program of over 50 episodes, including 18 original podcasts produced by Archivissima, 80 additional podcasts, and over 100 videos from across Italy. The 2020 theme is #WOMEN, highlighting historical female figures in arts and sciences. Podcasts feature voices such as journalist Valentina De Poli exploring the Archivio Storico Ricordi with a focus on Maria Callas, the Archivio Fondazione Mondadori on writer Alba De Cespedes, Eliana Liotta at the Archivio Storico di Intesa Sanpaolo, Michela Murgia on Sardinian oral poetry, and Vladimir Luxuria on transgender women in Italian cinema. The Polo del '900 di Torino organizes a digital dialogue on archives. A digital exhibition, 'Epochè – La figura femminile negli archivi,' opens June 5, showcasing women in corporate and professional contexts from the mid-20th century, including Fiat employees from the 1950s-60s and Lavazza advertising archives. The festival receives patronage from ANAI (Associazione nazionale archivistica italiana). President Andrea Montorio emphasized the decision to focus on digital and podcasts as a rapid communication vehicle, aiming to create a permanent digital archive of certified content for a broad audience.