Marxiano Melotti - Luxury and Leisure: Past and Future

The Power of Luxury: Art and Culture at the Italian Courts in Machiavelli’s Lifetime
The Australian Institute of Art History
The University of Melbourne
19 and 20 February, 2013

Session Four - Made in Italy Then and Now
Wednesday 20 February 4.00 pm

Marxiano Melotti
Luxury and Leisure: Past and Future

Abstract

The luxury is undoubtedly one of the factors that have most shaped the history of Italian culture, at least in the collective imagination. The memory of the ancient Rome of the Caesars, as well as that of the modern Rome of the Popes, have helped to build a winning image of Italy as a model, not always positive, of a country of pleasure and fun. The new - global and globalized - civilization of the leisure reinvents many of these issues with curious practices that show the hybridization between market, tourism and culture. On the other hand, Italy offers another form of luxury, which, especially in a time of crisis, could be an interesting model, not only for tourism: the "quality of life" and the "slowness" as a new luxury of contemporary life.

Livetweets

Marxiano Melotti explores paradoxes in mythicconceptions of "Renaissance" in past and present #machiavelli twitter.com/3pipenet/statu…
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Melotti: Italy has become redefined according to an archaelogical and tourist image of its history, a simplification#machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Melotti: Florence...the Piazzale Michelangelo a physical manifestation of a Grand Tour era landscape of the city #machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Melotti explores modern re-purposing of Florentine cultural identity vs a loss of historical knowledge #machiavelli twitter.com/3pipenet/statu…
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Melotti: gives examples of cultural hybridisation and de-intellectualisation of the Renaissance #machiavelli twitter.com/3pipenet/statu…
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Melotti's closing talk a refreshing look at modern manifestations of Italianhistory and culture with anthropological focus #machiavelli
— Hasan Niyazi (@3pipenet) February 20, 2013

Marxiano Melotti studies the continuity and discontinuity between the ancient and the modern world, with special reference to the re-discovery and valorisation of the past in the contemporary societies and, particularly, in the media. The relationships between tourism, world heritage and cultural identity are among his main interests. He works on the relationships between religious rites, cultural memory and tourism. He is professor of Sociology of Tourism and Heritage at Niccolò Cusano University of Human Sciences (Rome) and professor of Tourism and Heritage in the Master of Bicocca University in Magodhoo (Maldives). He has been professor of Archaeology and Cultural Tourism at the University of Milan Bicocca, Visiting professor at the Universities of Tampere (Finland), Gandia (Spain) and Viseu (Portugal) and professor in the International Master in Economics and Administration of Cultural Heritage at the University of Catania. He is also the Secretary general of the Foundation for the Italian Institute of Human Sciences (SUM), which organizes cultural events, seminars and conferences connected with museology and cultural heritage and promotes the Observatory on the Italian Culture. Among his published works, there are the books The Plastic Venuses Archaeological Tourism and Post-Modern Society (Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle, 2011), Turismo archeologico (Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2008), Mediterraneo tra miti e turismo (Cuem, Milano 2007) . On these themes he has given lectures in Italy and other countries (the United States, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Finland, Portugal, Greece and Monaco).

Image notes
David in Fiorentina colours. source Lifestyle43 blog link

nb. Entry created May 5 2013. Dated to Feb 20 (date of presentation) for indexing purposes