The Digital Atlas of Creative Captivity (DARCI) charts the rich cultural and artistic production of Italian detainees in Australia, the USA, UK, Africa, India as well as Japan between 1940 and 1947.
It provides a map of these people’s journeys and their creativity in diverse geographical spaces in order to deepen our comprehension of the connections between migration and the wartime experience, the transnational role of creativity during wartime and of the dynamic transcultural interactions between individuals and communities under restrictive lives.
This site consists of collections of objects, artworks, artefacts and written texts held in diverse repositories around the world.
This project is funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant.
We acknowledge the First Nations peoples of Australia and other sites referred to in this collection of documents. The University of Sydney, where we are based, is on the unceded land of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, and we pay particular respect to them.
Explore creative works
News
Exhibition: Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States
Date
May 1-September 26, 2025
Location
Calandra Institute
Event: Italian POWs in Australia on Screen
Date
Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Time
6:30 PM ET
Location
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University
Event: Italian POWs in the United States on Screen
Date
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Time
6 PM ET
Location
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University
