Canzoni, preghiere, danze. Psicofenomenologia dei CCCP

The present issue of Engramma (210) analyses the context, scope and aesthetics of the Italian punk group CCCP - Fedeli alla Linea, with the intention of involving scholars from different disciplines in order to outline, within a rigorous scientific framework, a psycho-phenomenology of CCCP as a “symptom” (in the Warburgian sense) and “connector” of a specific historical era. The starting point is the magnificent exhibition “Felicitazioni! CCCP - Fedeli alla linea 1984 - 2024” (Reggio Emilia, Chiostri di San Pietro, 12 october 2023-10 march 2024) to which the first section of this issue is dedicated. In the first contribution, Felicitazioni! Socialismo e schizofrenia. Note attorno alla mostra “Felicitazioni!, Francesco Bergamo addresses some of the main topics and possible interpretations of the exhibition “Felicitazioni! CCCP – Fedeli alla linea 1984-2024” in the monumental complex of the Chiostri di San Pietro in Reggio Emilia, homeland of the band. The exhibition is curated by CCCP themselves in collaboration with Stefania Vasques, who was interviewed in “È una questione di qualità”. Il progetto della mostra “Felicitazioni! CCCP – Fedeli alla linea 1984-2024” . Starting from “Felicitazioni!”, in CCCP. Felicitazione. Ovvero: il postmoderno spiegato agli anziani, Mario Farina constructs his writing by analysing the 'CCCP' device of memory, the phenomenon of nostalgia for something that never really existed, imbuing it with a deep and sharp theoretical reflection on the postmodern substance of the group.This section, dedicated to the band’s fortieth anniversary initiatives, concludes with Live in Berlin! CCCP in DDDR, Filippo Perfetti and Giulia Zanon’s account of the concerts CCCP gave in Berlin in February 2024. The contributions in this issue are organised in three sections: Canzoni (Songs), Preghiere (Prayers), Danze (Dances). The section Canzoni deals with what comes from outside. A series of writings that speaks of the context, i.e. those external conditions, be they historical or cultural, that allowed the CCCP to be born. The first contribution is by Luca Alessandrini, who in Reggio Emilia nella crisi della sinistra e delle sinistre negli anni Ottanta offers a historical reconstruction of the crisis of the Italian left, which occurred at a time when the world was undergoing radical change. In L’incontro mancato. I CCCP e Aldino Togliatti, Ivan Carozzi tells the story of Aldino Togliatti, son of the communist leader Palmiro Togliatti, who spent most of his life in a psychiatric hospital. Chiara Velicogna, inspired by the piece of the Berlin Wall exhibited in the “Felicitazioni!” exhibition, in Saluti da Pankow. A proposito del Muro di Berlino e dei suoi resti explores the material and visual aspects of the history of the Berlin Wall. Gian Piero Piretto, interviewed by Christian Toson, in CCCP e СССР. Il mito sovietico italiano, da Cavriago a Berlino recounts the metamorphosis that the myth of the Soviet Union has undergone in Italy, from the late 1970s and 1990s to the present day. The section Preghiere takes an introspective look at the Emilian group and their artistic process. Guglielmo Bottin’s essay Fedeli a Berlino. Influenze della Neue Deutsche Welle nel post-punk emiliano dei CCCP focuses on the influence of the Berlin cultural scene on CCCP’s music. Michele Rossi in “Smettila di parlare, avvicinati un po’”. Mi ami? dei CCCP – Fedeli alla linea analyses the song Mi ami?, a poetic collage Ferretti made from the 1979 Italian translation of Roland Barthes’ Fragments d'un discours amoreux. Michele Nastasi in “Lasciami così”. Luigi Ghirri e i CCCP – Fedeli alla linea, writes about Ghirri’s photographic campaign for the album Epica Etica Etnica Pathos, and through the narration of this experience constructs a comparison, both theoretical and spiritual, between Ghirri and CCCP. Also spiritual is the analysis of Giorgiomaria Cornelio, who in Ferretti o il ritmo dell’apostasia speaks of the messianic aspects of Giovanni Lindo Ferretti’s singing. The section Danze is about expression: the representations and images CCCP shows of itself. Alessandro Bratus in Ideologia come stile, stile come ortodossia. La costruzione di un immaginario spettacolare nel progetto artistico dei CCCP offers a detailed analysis of the CCCP in the way they embrace and reject what influences them on stage. Alessadra Vaccari in “La storia siamo noi”. Moda e cultura popolare in Annarella ‘benemerita soubrette’ offers a reading of the clothes Annarella designs, sews and wears, not only in terms of their aesthetic and stylistic bearing. This is followed by an interview with Diego Cuoghi Forma e sostanza. Le copertine dai CCCP al CSI, curated by Michela Maguolo, a dialogue with the architect and designer who has worked with the group since their last CCCP covers in the late 1980s. Lastly in Frammenti elettrici, Filippo Perfetti draws up a treatise on the hermeneutics of the moving image, based on suggestions triggered by video fragments tangentially dealing with CCCP and their cultural background.