Work began on the National Museum of Italian Emigration in Genoa. "One place of memory, inclusion and democracy".
The opening is planned for the first months of 2022, and the organizers hope to have the presence of Jill Jacobs Biden, First Lady of the United States. She has Italian origins.
With a cost of 5,3 million euros (R$36 million), the museum is being built in the old Commenda di San Giovanni di Prè building, from where hundreds of thousands of Italians left for Brazil, for example. In this building, every stone speaks of the memory of the emigrants.
“An important project for history, culture and tourism. Genoa played a strategic role in the history of Italian emigration thanks to its port”, says Marco Bucci, mayor of Genova.
The museum will consist of three floors where the common thread will be “overcome boredom".
Visitors will be able to see the stories of those who left, the reasons that led them to do so and the symbols of the journey. It will be an experience “in its place”, highlighted Piero Campodonico, director of Genoa Sea Museum. “We want the visitor to put themselves in the emigrant’s shoes.”
Italian Emigration: from 1870 to 1970
“We focused on the period from 1870 to 1970. Because in that time almost 27 million people passed by here. 27 million stories”, says Campodonico.
The exhibition itinerary will be dotted with autobiographies, diaries, letters, photographs, newspapers and songs who accompanied the emigrants.
The different “stations” that make up the route may “speak” in different ways depending on the person approaching. This is thanks to a registration mechanism at the entrance that will allow you to calibrate languages, stories and documents based on the specific person making the trip.
Among the curiosities featured in the exhibition is “World Room”, a large planetarium to tell that Italians didn't just leave for the USA, Latin America and Australia, but for the whole world.
The National Museum of Italian Emigration will also have “360 degree” theaters for debates and a toy library.
There will also be the Memorial da Emigration: a planisphere at the top of which hang red threads, representing the blood shed by many emigrants involved in tragedies, for example.
The troubled internal and current immigration will also have space: “because the story of emigration never ends“, concludes Campodonico.
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