Obj. ID: 53617 "All Potential Targets" Memorial in Rome, Italy, 1995
Name of Monument:
'Tutti Potenziali Bersagli' (All Potential Targets)
Who/What is Commemorated?
Victims of Fascism and racism
Description
The memorial sculpture depicts five human beings with their hands tied behind their backs. A triangle recalling those worn by German concentration camp inmates is on the chest of each figure The backs of the figures face outward and one can view the triangles and stars in the mirror images facing them. The figures have their hands behind them, bound with chains.
On one side of the monument, there is a hard-to-read plaque explaining the meaning of the work.
Inscriptions
A tutte le vittime della barbarie fascista dall’inizio del ventennio ad oggi
da quelle delle camice nere o delle camice nere sono il doppio petto
dalle persecuzioni razziali e politiche degli anni di mussolini e Hitler
alle bombe sui treni e piazza della strategia della tensione,
degli omicidi dei militanti antifascisti compiuti negli anni ’70 da squadristi in e senza divisa
fino agli assalti ai centri sociali ai campi nomadi e ai linciaggi degli immigrati.
A tutte le donne e gli uomini liberi trasformati in sagome da tiro a bersaglio.
A tutti quelli che al fascismo si sono opposti.
e sopratutto a quelli che al fascismo palese o mascherato
sempre SI OPPORRANNO
25 APRILE 1945-1995
Translation: To all the victims of fascist barbarism from the beginning of the twenties to today, from those of black shirts or double breasted black shirts, from the racial and political persecutions of the years of Mussolini and Hitler to the bombs on the trains and the piazze of the strategy of tension [strategia della tensione], of the murders of anti-fascist militants carried out in the 1970s by squadristi in and without uniforms, up to the assaults on social centers, nomad camps, and lynching of immigrants. To all free women and men transformed into target shooting silhouettes. To all those who opposed fascism and above all to those who will always oppose overt or disguised fascism. April 25, 1945-1995
Commissioned by
The public. It was financed by a popular subscription (associations, social centers, etc)
16 image(s)
steel
bronze
glass (mirrors)
The location of the monument is significant. On September 8, 1943, Marshall Pietro Badoglio — who replaced Mussolini when he got fired — announced that Italy negotiated an armistice with the Allies. The Germans immediately marched into the capital, prompting outbursts of resistance around the city, including three days of pitched battle between the Germans and Italian soldiers and armed civilians in this immediate area, which includes the Pyramid of Caius Cestius and the Protestant Cemetery.
The monument was designed and built by a group of political activists and artists, who only received authorization the night before it was to be unveiled on April 25, 1995. The monument was only intended to be a 10-day installation, but it was never taken down. Fourteen years later, a plaque celebrating its creation was placed next to it.
In 2007, it was included in Italy’s census of cultural heritage.
Until 2018, All Potential Targets was the only Roman monument that referenced and was dedicated to the homosexual victims of fascism.
Grilli, Fabio, "Piramide, vandalizzato il primo monumento dedicato anche alle vittime omosessuali dell'olocausto," Romatoday, January 12, 2020, https://www.romatoday.it/zone/garbatella/ostiense/piramide-danneggiate-sagome-vittime-olocausto.htm (accessed April 18, 2024)
"Tutti potenziali bersagli," Wordpress, August 17, 2014, https://mylifeparttwo.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/tutti-potenziali-bersagli/ (accessed April 18, 2024)