Mega events in Italy have often had a very important political role to politically represent the Country in its historical phases. Thus the Turin Universal Exhibition of 1911 was the occasion to celebrate the 50 years of Italian unity (PLBassignana, 2006) or the Venice Film Festival was conceived as a political showcase for Mussolini's fascism (F Paulon, 1971). The aim of this contribution is to show how the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 and the Winter Games in Turin 2006 played a fundamental political and spatial role. We will show how the 1960 Games were first of all an opportunity for Rome to redefine its spatialization through planning interventions linked to the Olympic infrastructure. It was about putting order in a city that had experienced strong growth since the end of World War II but which felt the need to send a message that was different from itself (B. Keys, 2011). It was also a fundamental political opportunity for the main party of the country: the Christian Democracy. The President of the Organizing Committee was Giulio Andreotti and even the choice of architects and engineers in charge of the projects was aimed at achieving clarity and homogeneity in architectural production. The Games in Rome therefore remain a key passage in contemporary Italian history both on an urban scale to redefine the spatial organization of the City, both to restore visibility to the Italian capital after the war and especially after. the two fascist decades (A. Fiadino, 2013). But also at international level for a whole country that wanted to show how the political system in place was able to manage this Italy. From this point of view the role of the Olympic Games in Rome had the role of the great Spanish events of 1992 (Seville, Barcelona and Madrid). The Olympic Winter Games in Turin in 2006 had a different role but of great importance on a regional scale (E. Dansero and A. Mela, 2007). They were games fundamentally organized by a Region much more than by a city and they represented an opportunity to relaunch a region that needed to relaunch after a major industrial decline. A work of representation first launched at the regional level as to redefine a dynamic identity (while the commonplace of Piedmont is that of a region more closed off compared to the other three regions of the North of the Country), a work also of national representation which aimed to restore an important role to this region compared to the rest of the country in a context which strongly delocalized the work of “representation” of the State to the different Italian regions (Constitutional Reform of 2001). Turin's new international positioning on the tourism market in relation to its international but also Italian competitors (from Milan). The methodology is based on a comparative research of certain elements such as: 1) The quantity of development projects carried out and the nature of urban and regional changes, 2) The territorial dimension: what was the scope of sports activities? 3) What communication strategy in both cases has been put in place? 4) Who are the actors who participated in this organization and what antagonisms have been observed? The results are several. First in terms of the evolution of a temporary mega-event as Hall will define it. Indeed these two mega-events had a role fundamental in changing their image, on multiple scales and are what Getz and Page define hallmark event. We will also show the governance system put in place and the possible antagonisms in a local geopolitical approach such as (B. Loyer 2019, P. Subra 2016). This shows us how the nature of governance has changed profoundly in these 50 years and how this has affected the relationships between actors. This gives us the opportunity to better understand the evolution of the nature of the relationships between actors, public action and territory.
The Olympic Games in Rome and Turin: comparison of local territorial strategies and Geopolitical representations
PIOLETTI A;
2021-01-01
Abstract
Mega events in Italy have often had a very important political role to politically represent the Country in its historical phases. Thus the Turin Universal Exhibition of 1911 was the occasion to celebrate the 50 years of Italian unity (PLBassignana, 2006) or the Venice Film Festival was conceived as a political showcase for Mussolini's fascism (F Paulon, 1971). The aim of this contribution is to show how the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 and the Winter Games in Turin 2006 played a fundamental political and spatial role. We will show how the 1960 Games were first of all an opportunity for Rome to redefine its spatialization through planning interventions linked to the Olympic infrastructure. It was about putting order in a city that had experienced strong growth since the end of World War II but which felt the need to send a message that was different from itself (B. Keys, 2011). It was also a fundamental political opportunity for the main party of the country: the Christian Democracy. The President of the Organizing Committee was Giulio Andreotti and even the choice of architects and engineers in charge of the projects was aimed at achieving clarity and homogeneity in architectural production. The Games in Rome therefore remain a key passage in contemporary Italian history both on an urban scale to redefine the spatial organization of the City, both to restore visibility to the Italian capital after the war and especially after. the two fascist decades (A. Fiadino, 2013). But also at international level for a whole country that wanted to show how the political system in place was able to manage this Italy. From this point of view the role of the Olympic Games in Rome had the role of the great Spanish events of 1992 (Seville, Barcelona and Madrid). The Olympic Winter Games in Turin in 2006 had a different role but of great importance on a regional scale (E. Dansero and A. Mela, 2007). They were games fundamentally organized by a Region much more than by a city and they represented an opportunity to relaunch a region that needed to relaunch after a major industrial decline. A work of representation first launched at the regional level as to redefine a dynamic identity (while the commonplace of Piedmont is that of a region more closed off compared to the other three regions of the North of the Country), a work also of national representation which aimed to restore an important role to this region compared to the rest of the country in a context which strongly delocalized the work of “representation” of the State to the different Italian regions (Constitutional Reform of 2001). Turin's new international positioning on the tourism market in relation to its international but also Italian competitors (from Milan). The methodology is based on a comparative research of certain elements such as: 1) The quantity of development projects carried out and the nature of urban and regional changes, 2) The territorial dimension: what was the scope of sports activities? 3) What communication strategy in both cases has been put in place? 4) Who are the actors who participated in this organization and what antagonisms have been observed? The results are several. First in terms of the evolution of a temporary mega-event as Hall will define it. Indeed these two mega-events had a role fundamental in changing their image, on multiple scales and are what Getz and Page define hallmark event. We will also show the governance system put in place and the possible antagonisms in a local geopolitical approach such as (B. Loyer 2019, P. Subra 2016). This shows us how the nature of governance has changed profoundly in these 50 years and how this has affected the relationships between actors. This gives us the opportunity to better understand the evolution of the nature of the relationships between actors, public action and territory.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
