The Competition: Transforming the Palazzo degli Uffici Finanziari Facade
On 25th January 2011, after decades of controversy over the preservation or destruction of Fascist-era monuments in the province, an understanding was finally reached. The Italian Minister for Culture, Sandro Bondi, addressed the issue in a letter to the President of the Autonomous Provincial Council of Bolzano-Bozen, Luis Durnwalder. The letter assured that the restoration work in progress at the nearby Monument to Victory would include an explanatory intervention on its history, involving the local institutions. A similar solution, based on institutional collaboration, was also proposed for the Alpino Monument at Bruneck-Brunico, together with the three ossuaries at Burgeis-Burgusio, Gossensasss-Colle Isarco and Innichen-San Candido. For Piffrader's bas-relief on the Palazzo degli Ufficio Finanziari, interventions with great impact were envisioned.
On 2nd February 2011, the Autonomous Provincial Council of Bolzano-Bozen announced a competition for ideas to transform the facade. The competition was open to artists, architects, historians and anyone involved in the cultural sphere. The solution had to transform the bas-relief into a place of memory, so that it was "...no longer visible directly but accessible thoughtfully, with appropriate explanatory texts." The ideas and the projects could be presented in any form, but they had to include an architectural and artistic dialogue with the building itself and the whole of Piazza del Tribunale. Other evaluation criteria considered the creativity, practicality, and the quality of the historical information. A special commission was set up to evaluate these projects.
From the 486 projects submitted, five joint winners were selected, including Val Gardena artists Arnold Holzknecht and Michele Bernardi. Their ideas have been applied, with some modification and integration.

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2011 Concorso di Idee - Descizione dei progetti.pdf
2011 Concorso di Idee - Rilievo dei progetti.pdf