Sleeping Memories in Italian Archives. Historical Photographs of Asmara and Italy's Controversial Relationship with its Colonial past

The essay focuses on the images collected in two Italian colonial archives (especially the IsIAO’s and that of the Società Africana d’Italia); on how and when they were collected, and how the documentary material has been organized. It will describe what place Asmara and its architecture occupy within these spaces. The story and the fate of the two archives, especially the Roman one, are particularly emblematic of the Italian controversial relationship with its colonial past, marked by long-standing denial at the institutional and social levels.