Body-Talk: Nazi Aesthetics and Surrealism in a Talk at Fondazione Mudima

On September 26, 2023, at Fondazione Mudima in Milan, art critic and curator Manuela Gandini presented a talk titled 'Body-talk: Qualcosa ci sta sognando' exploring the dark zone of the last 100 years, focusing on Nazi aesthetics and surrealism. The event examined how Adolf Hitler's image was constructed through photography by Heinrich Hoffmann, with Eva Braun developing negatives in his studio. Gandini discussed the role of media—radio, photographs in the 'Völkischer Beobachter', and newsreels—in amplifying Hitler's propaganda. The talk also addressed the surrealist movement of the 1920s, citing Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's 'Un Chien Andalou' (1929), and how surrealist works were later condemned in the 1937 'Entartete Kunst' exhibition in Munich. References were made to artist Fabio Mauri, who studied fascist aesthetics as an 'ineludible part of our collective body', and to Pier Paolo Pasolini's critique of fascism and consumerism. Gandini is a contemporary art critic, curator, and lecturer at NABA in Milan, writing for 'La Stampa' and 'Il Manifesto', and author of 'Ileana Sonnabend. The queen of art'.