Archivi dal passato per un’utopia futuristica

The Shadow Gallery in the comic book V for Vendetta (by Alan Moore and David Lloyd) is an underground shelter where the protagonist keeps a vast collection of artworks, books and cultural objects (including a juke box) prohibited by the totalitarian regime in power. In the film of the same name (James McTeigue, 2005), its presence is medially amplified by the presence of additional audiovisual material. Both spaces act as symbols of cultural and intellectual resistance against oppression, highlighting the power of knowledge and art as instruments of emancipation. The proposal, through a comparative semiotic analysis of the 2005 film and further cinematic examples, intends to focus on the representation of multimedia(sensoria)li collections as archetypes of modern virtual collections, where a “personal” selection entails an enrichment of the knowledge that is forthcoming. Through the analysis of these spaces, the dynamics between collecting, memory and power can be explored, highlighting the crucial role of archives as custodians of knowledge, freedom and an “alternative” culture.