Curator of the exhibition:
Mr. Michel-Edouard Nigaglioni, former Director of Heritage of the city of Bastia.
Jean-Christophe Liccia, former president of the Association of historical research Petre Scritte and founder of the magazine A Cronica.
From 2007 to 2012, at the initiative and under the direction of Professor Enrique Vivoni-Farage of the Department of Architecture at the University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican students traveled to Corsica to draw up plans, sections and elevations of 78 houses of Americans of Cape Corsica. This “Study Program in Corsica”, supported by the University of Corsica, the city of Bastia and the Asociación de Corsos de Puerto Rico, allowed Professor Vivoni-Farage’s team to create models, both physical and virtual, using the latest computer technology. They were presented in an exhibition entitled La Casa de los Americanos at the Museo Antiguo Arsenal de la Marina Española in the city of San Juan (August 2016-January 2017).
The University of Puerto Rico and Professor Vivoni-Farage have generously donated 20 of these models to the Collectivité territoriale de Corse. This donation is an opportunity for the Museum of Corsica to dedicate its major 2017 temporary exhibition around these models and various symbolic objects.
This new exhibition at the Museum of Corsica demonstrates how important palazzi are in the history of the island, from a sociological and artistic point of view. They are tangible symbols of the economic success, the spirit of adventure and the culture of these intrepid Corsicans, enriched in the Americas.
These palaces give the island a valuable image. They are among the five main types of elements that contribute to the prestige of Corsica’s heritage, along with the Romanesque churches, the Baroque churches, the coastal towers and the citadels.
The exhibition is both chronological over five centuries and thematic, presenting a targeted selection of heritage objects from the collections of various Corsican and national institutions and, above all, from numerous private collections. These objects are symbols, landmarks and milestones for the most part unpublished.
The scenography plunges the visitor into the interior of these sumptuous neoclassical residences built by the Capcorsins who made their fortune in the Americas (Puerto Rico, Haiti, Venezuela…) in an atmosphere that is both rich, elegant and refined.
The themes addressed in the course of the exhibition:
Corsican-American emigration: the precursors (16th-18th centuries)
The Palazzi: construction and decoration
Families and destinies (19th century)
