A War Play

A War Play is a project by Giulio Squillacciotti that investigates the representation of war and its staging. The project stems from a stereoscopic image by the painter Giuseppe Augusto Levis (1879–1926) from a series of works dedicated to the historical depiction of the First World War. Levis constructed tableaux vivants using peasants from the local area (Piedmont), hired for the occasion. Squillacciotti works on the re-temporalisation of the work in the contemporary context, adding further layers to the staging. The book traces the project from a theoretical-narrative perspective, bringing together the contributions of the curators, ARTECO and CRIPTA747, as well as researchers Vittoria Martini and Kamil Dalkir, who question the extent to which visual constructions may influence the viewer’s perception and interpretation, pre-empting and sometimes subverting the veracity of the narration.