Dawit L. Petros: Prospetto a mare
Along the Lakefront Trail near Chicago’s Soldier Field stands an unassuming
Corinthian column atop a stone plinth. It is, in fact, a monument gifted by
Benito Mussolini to commemorate Italo Balboa’s famed transatlantic flight
from Italy to Chicago during the 1933–34 World’s Fair, the worn inscription
of which originally hailed the “Fascist Era.” The monument has become a
contested site within the city’s commemorative landscape and is the
provenance for Dawit L. Petros’s fascinating exhibition, “Prospetto a Mare”(Sea View), exploring the specter of fascism on Chicago’s built environment and Italy’s colonial legacies in North and East Africa.