Conferences on 28 February 2023

When planning an exhibition, it is essential to find all the elements that can help to tell the story that the exhibition wants to propose to the public.

These elements are classified according to their typology and constitute the 'historical sources' whether they are oral, written, material or visual. Their plurality and the cross-fertilisation of the data that each of them provides make it possible to reconstruct the past as truthfully as possible.

Different types of sources are also present in the exhibition '1932, l'elefante e il colle perduto'. Among these, visual sources were essential to reconstruct, and then offer the visitor, not only the image of the state of Villa Rivaldi and Velia before their destruction, but also the chronicle of the actions that led to their disappearance.

Nicoletta Bernacchio is Art Historian Curator for the Capitoline Superintendence at the Imperial Forums Office, in charge of the Promotion and Enhancement of the Archaeological and Artistic Heritage of the Medieval and Modern Age of the monumental complex. She graduated and specialised in Medieval Art History at the Sapienza University of Rome, where she obtained her PhD in Art History. She is the author of studies on the post-antique artistic and architectural heritage of the Imperial Forum area. She has curated several exhibitions dedicated to these historical phases and set up in the Museo dei Fori Imperiali: I Fori dopo i Fori (2017); Napoleone e il mito di Roma (2021); 1932, l'elefante e il colle perduto (2022).

Valentina Musella, an archaeologist, graduated and specialised in Phoenician-Punic Archaeology at the Sapienza University of Rome. She has followed several excavation campaigns in Sicily and Rome. For several years now, she has been working at the Sovrintendenza Capitolina, at the Ufficio dei Mercati di Traiano-Fori Imperiali. She is the author of several scientific publications.

Nicoletta Bernacchio is Art Historian Curator for the Capitoline Superintendence at the Imperial Forums Office, in charge of the Promotion and Enhancement of the Archaeological and Artistic Heritage of the Medieval and Modern Age of the monumental complex. She graduated and specialised in Medieval Art History at the Sapienza University of Rome, where she obtained her PhD in Art History. She is the author of studies on the post-antique artistic and architectural heritage of the Imperial Forum area. She has curated several exhibitions dedicated to these historical phases and set up in the Museo dei Fori Imperiali: I Fori dopo i Fori (2017); Napoleone e il mito di Roma (2021); 1932, l’elefante e il colle perduto (2022).

Valentina Musella, an archaeologist, graduated and specialised in Phoenician-Punic Archaeology at the Sapienza University of Rome. She has followed several excavation campaigns in Sicily and Rome. For several years now, she has been working at the Sovrintendenza Capitolina, at the Ufficio dei Mercati di Traiano-Fori Imperiali. She is the author of several scientific publications.

The conferences will be followed by a visit to the exhibition 1932, l’elefante e il colle perduto

The conferences are recorded and put online on the FB page of the Mercati di Traiano the following week