Fernanda Pivano: from Pavese to Hemingway, all the way to the Beat Generation
The exhibition, curated by architect Alessandra Morra, was born from a period of study and reflection on the intellectual significance of the writers and translators from the Langhe and Roero region: Cesare Pavese and Beppe Fenoglio. Thanks to translators, American literature arrived in Italy, bringing with it a wind of change.
Central to this story is Fernanda Pivano, Einaudi’s translator of the Spoon River Anthology and Hemingway’s works. She was the one who promoted and elevated the writers of the Beat Generation in Italy, and the first to publish an article about Bob Dylan. Her translations inspired Fabrizio De André, whom she herself proclaimed as the Italian poet of the 20th century, after Pier Paolo Pasolini declined that role.
Through the images from the Pivano Archive and from Ettore Sottsass—featured in Fernanda Pivano and Guido Harari’s book The Beat Goes On—visitors will also have the opportunity to understand how photography helped make the figure of a translator iconic.
The title, “Grace under pressure”, evokes an unforgettable quote by Ernest Hemingway about grace:
“Grace is the touch of one who is filled with what is missing and what must not be missing. And it reveals itself supremely in difficulty. In pain. In the imminence of the end.”
This phrase brings us back to the entire poetics of Cesare Pavese.
