I'm finding the image of the 1930's Fascist party headquarters facade in Rome particularly visually striking, and wondered about how it came to be and the general reaction to it. The buildings is apparantly the "Palazzo Braschi"
Why this building/location for the headquarters?
What was the public reaction to the facade?
Was it viewed positively or negatively?
Is the "SI" meant as "One" or "Yes"? And why would complete unquestioning obedience to the state/leader be an acceptable public sentiment?
Why a giant 3d face of Mussolini, and not a statue of him, or even the party name?
Is there any relevance to the surroundings, or for example the statue in the foreground (a statue of Marco Minghetti apparantly)
Was this part of a wider art/design movement?
(As a side note, I do find it slightly amusing that theres a gelato/ice cream shop right next door to it.)
That's not the facade of the building, merely a giant campaign banner for the 1934 election/plebiscite where people had the choice either vote 'yes' (si) or 'no' to the Fascist party list. Hence, "si" is yes. (It wouldn't really make much sense as 'one' either, as that's the pronoun 'one' or reflexively 'oneself', not the number)
The party name would be pretty unnecessary, as Italy already was a one-party state by that time, and Mussolini's cult of personality was in full swing. It's a stern, almost menacing face to be sure, but that was Mussolini's 'look'. Even when smiling he looked pretty stern. (Hitler seemed capable of looking much more friendly than Mussolini ever did)
The style itself is quite contemporary - Modernist - in its radical simplicity. The Italian Fascists weren't as opposed to modernism in art as the Nazis were. Soviet propaganda also embraced modernism, until Stalin directed that 'socialist realism' was the style to follow.
This is a particularily striking example, but far from the only example of Fascist modernist propaganda. Here's another example from the same campaign, and another quite similar bit of propaganda. But they were probably just as visually striking then as it is now, if not more so. It should probably be kept in mind, though, that at that time, a large portion of the Italians didn't have such strongly negative connotations to seeing the stern face of Mussolini.
