Painting by Giuliano della Casa
The Italian flag is getting a new look thanks to 90 international artists participating in a show in Emilia-Romagna.
Called ‘Novanta Artisti per una Bandiera’ (Ninety Artists For A Flag), the exhibition celebrates the Italian flag. The show opened on 17 March, to commemorate the date when of the Unification of Italy in 1861.
The show is being staged in the city of Reggio Emilia, which gave birth to Italy’s first tricolour flag, when the XIVth Parliament of the Cispadane Republic adopted a green, white and red flag on 7 January 1797.
The local city hall donated Italian flags to 90 contemporary artists, who then reinterpreted them using different media, such as collage, and some elected to paint directly on to a flag. Some artists even chose to personalise the flag by creating separate artworks inspired by the national flag.
The flag artworks will be on show at the Chiostri di San Domenico in Reggio Emilia until 25 April. Afterwards, organisers hope to take the show on tour in Italy in an effort to promote Italian unity and help raise funds to build a special unit dedicated to women and children at Reggio Emilia’s Ospedale Santa Maria Nuova hospital.
