"To keep freedom intact to the point of intoxication." Benignly haunted by the spectre of Gabriele D'Annunzio – of which I suspect to be the reincarnation – Giordano Bruno Guerri At night he prepares the conference on the madness of the Poet (at the Follemente festival in Teramo, directed by Gianluca Veneziani). And in the meantime he receives the news of his reconfirmation as President of the Vittoriale degl'Italiani. With his fourth mandate in thirteen years, he is a repeat offender. By now he is part of the sacred walls.

Giordano, the dust of centuries settles on you. Still president and with a museum/mausoleum/circus maximus that receives no public funding, and with Franceschini, a left-wing minister who renames a right-wing historian known for criticizing the right as a manager. Something doesn’t add up…
"What don't you get? I'm happy that my work is appreciated across the board. The Vittoriale has always remained profitable thanks to ticket sales (we closed with 180 visitors, 70 more than in 2020). We transformed that visionary project into what D'Annunzio wanted: a place where nature, history, life and beauty pulsated and where he was honored over time. We finished it with the flooring of the theater and bringing the bodies of the Poet's comrades in arms back to the mausoleum: on December 4, after the return of the remains of the mayor of Fiume Riccardo Gigante that Tito threw into a common grave, we buried the last body of Sergeant Antonio Gottardo"

At the festival on madness you talk about the Three follies of Gabriele D'Annunzio. What would they be?
"The first is, in fact, the Vittoriale. The second is the Fiume enterprise: it started from being nationalist and became revolutionary, it wanted to annex Fiume to Italy and ended up with the desire to annex Italy to Fiume. And, if you think about it, the Carta del Carnaro promulgated on September 8, 1920 during the last months of the enterprise; well, it was ahead of its time. At a time when the whole world was discussing whether to give women the vote, the charter preached absolute equality between men and women: women could not only vote, but be elected and even have to do military service."

In the face of MeeToo, political correctness, gender violence
«Not only that. He also introduced divorce fifty years in advance, he put workers on the boards of directors of factories. And he advocated two great ideas: the reform of the army in which ranks were abolished (he copied Mao) and the League of Oppressed Peoples that protected all minorities, from the blacks of America to the Chinese in California, he anticipated the territorial Leagues. The Poet was very advanced, unique, inimitable. He said that "the man of intellect makes his life as one makes a work of art". Many try, but only he succeeded in creating a masterpiece».

If you project it into the present, wouldn't you see a D'Annunzio, lance at the ready, against cancel culture, or Christmas cancelled by an overzealous European Commission manager?
«Yes. He would consider this politically correct and cancel culture thing horrendous as well as unsightly. If you think about the idea of ​​canceling Christmas, it reminds you that D'Annunzio, who didn't celebrate Christmas or any other holidays (he only celebrated personal anniversaries), had a collection of objects in the Priory here at the Vittoriale - Christian, Hindu, Buddhist - that gave him a sense of the sacred. If they had told him not to celebrate Christmas, he would have decorated all the cypresses at the Vittoriale with glass balls. And, mind you, there are 217 of them»

And this brings us to your third D’Annunzio-esque folly, the attempt to transform Italian society. But did he really succeed, or, starting with Fiume, did he only collect failures disguised as revolutions in customs?
«The attempt to overthrow an Italian society made up of a petty, resentful, God-fearing bourgeoisie lies in the shock that D'Annunzio gave through his scandals, his dandyism, his dedication to the pleasures of life, to making debts, to living everything without shame. He did nothing different from what we do today, only that he did it a century earlier. D'Annunzio is our father, a revolutionary in everything. When he published Pleasure at 25, Joyce said: "Finally someone who makes us discover Italian literature. D'Annunzio was more of a visionary than a madman".

«Stay hungry, stay foolish». So you're telling me that the Poet, with all his redundancy, was a sort of Steve Jobs ante litteram?
"Look, D'Annunzio was a man of all fields. He introduced the expressions "Cultural Heritage" or "intellectuals". As a copywriter he invented "La Rinascente". Even the "scudetto" is his thing. He pulled it out of the hat on the occasion of a football tournament organized in Fiume; the winner could pin this little shield on his shirt, an idea that would be copied seven years later by the Italian Football Federation. And, if you want, he was the precursor of Instagram, social media, selfies..."

This is really tight, Giordano, come on…
"But no, think about it. He never let himself be photographed; he chose the photographer himself and, personally, the right pose, the image to serve to the public: thoughtful, bold, sensual. He even anticipated the influencers, even if the term opinion maker would be more appropriate for him. He had, especially at the turn of the 900th century, the ability to influence fashion: all the men imitated him on holidays, they grew goatee like him."

So could we also say that D'Annunzio, affected by incontrovertible satyriasis, would find himself at ease in this period of sexual fluidity, like the Maneskin?
«Well, he was a man of his time, he had not had some experiences such as homosexual relations. But with his female partners it is reasonable to think that he performed lesbian roles. Probably all this gender fluidity, from a sexual point of view, he would ride it today, if only to have, according to his spirit, more opportunities. However, his period of greatest splendor was in the days of Fiume: during the siege the Poet lived a “siege happiness”, he was unbridled; like an ancient leader he had conquered the city without firing a shot. He used the Uskoks for acts of piracy; he had 48 horses stolen from the army that was besieging him; and he ate them, returning 48 emaciated nags».

Back to your nomination. You didn't answer me about the fact that you are considered center-right but you are undermining the cultural structure of the center-right and - I understand - the "sovereignist" wave...
«I have always criticized right-wing culture to try to improve it. I would like it to be liberal, free market, libertarian and maybe a little libertine; but I see it more stuck in traditionalism. And it depends on what you mean by sovereignism. If it's about defending one's roots, I'm fine with that; if it's meant as locking oneself in one's own little world, refusing to engage with the outside, I'm not okay with that. Unfortunately, I think we're more on the second path...»

Francis Specchia
Source: Open admission – 03/12/2021