The Kennedy era through the looking glass
Ground floor – Why Kennedy in Gemona?
“We all inhabit this small planet.
We all breathe the same air.
We all cherish our children’s future.
And we are all mortal.”
John F. Kennedy
The 60th anniversary of the murder of John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) has inspired a wealth of initiatives and discussions worldwide, an eloquent proof that the event is still vividly remembered by the public opinion. Kennedy represents a pivotal figure of the 20th century, the subject matter of countless books, essays, narrative reinterpretations by famous writers and film directors, as well as of many musical creations, including a recent album by Bob Dylan. Whatever one may judge it in hindsight, Kennedy’s brief presidency of the United States – less than three years – has undoubtedly left an indelible trace in the collective memory. If we also consider its antecedents (Lincoln, the Civil War, the previous presidents: Wilson, F.D. Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower) and its inheritance (Johnson, Nixon), it is clear that the Kennedy era emerges as a focal point our recent and present history. The crucial decade of the 1960s in particular, with its extreme and at times contradictory vitality, finds in the Kennedy presidency and the personalities who tragically marked the end of this period (Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy) an important occasion to explore issues well worth revisiting.
This exhibition aims at providing a useful contribution to the debate, but the the question remains: why should a project of this scope and depth be organized in Gemona, the first instalment of a three-year initiative held under the auspices of the City of Gemona, at the Castello di Gemona, with the support of the Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia?
The truth of the matter is that the aspiration to find a meeting point where all the inhabitants of this planet are treated as equal, and where the pride of being American can be properly contextualised, finds in a seemingly remote location like Gemona a place where the Kennedy saga has been followed with a great deal of attention and empathy. No one knows whether or not JFK ever came here, but it is worth remembering that in 1952, when JFK was still a US congressman (soon to become senator), he visited the nearby cities of Trieste and Gorizia.
It is precisely in Gemona that two adolescents, Livio Jacob and Piera Patat, began to assemble — shortly after Kennedy’s murder — a massive corpus of JFK-related documents, films and memorabilia, later included in the Cineteca del Friuli’s permanent collection. The holdings, which have further grown over the years, constitute the core of the objects and images presented here.
The rationale of the exhibition is an effort to go beyond a pure chronicle of the events: reason and passion are equally necessary to fully understand the Kennedy legacy. This is also the message we would like to convey to the visitors of this show: we hope you will find here your own vision of JFK, to be nurtured in your journey through the 21st century, where so much has indeed changed (who would not be ashamed by the racial segregation that nurtured the economy of slavery of the past century?), but where there is still the urgency to be aware that there is no single center in the world we inhabit.