Macao - Stress the Power

Last Thrusday and Friday I went to Macao (Milan) for the late-afternoon public assembly.

"Macao Square - Spontaneous Movement"

Macao (M^C^O) is a movement, a group, an happening, a long-lasting political performance, a …. - I don't know how to define it – born out of about one year of meetings of some Milan-based art workers around cultural politics in Milan (and in Italy).

Galfa Tower, Milan

On 5^th May the core group of Macao “occupied” the Galfa Tower, a skyscraper in the central zone of Milan. This action is linked to the occupation of abandoned and unused cultural spaces in Rome, Naples, Palermo and Venice. On 9th May, at dawn, after only 3 days, police expelled the occupants from the Galfa Tower. Without any sort of violence or aggression, people kindly moved out right outside in the street below and settled there. The traffic had to be stopped – and Lord knows how hysterical the Milanese becomes at even the tiniest distress in the traffic!

Soon a lot of people gathered actively to support Macao and take part to it, especially when public assemblies take place, assemblies where decisions are made together.

If in the other Italian cities the movements occupied public spaces with an overt vocation to culture, the case of Milan is different. In theory the Galfa Tower is not a public space, since it is property of Mr.Ligresti. But Mr. Ligresti, who was condemned for crimes of bribe, is a shady figure that is working a lot for Milan and the Region Lombardia (Milan is its capital), gaining a lot of money with his construction enterprise (not to mention the rest of his businesses). Saying that Mr Ligresti's connection to politics is suspicious is an understatement.

A moment of the public assembly

The Galfa Tower has been left unused for 15 years now.

I heard somebody saying that the bills of the building (and that is why it is still have electricity in it) are still on the charge of the Region Lombardia, which is a Public Agent, that is: it is charging on the citizens who cannot use it, since it is of private property.

In the same condition you can find plenty of buildings of huge dimensions here and there in Milan.

Yesterday, 19th May, Macao moved from the Galfa Tower to Palazzo Citterio, another symbolic spot of the cultural politics of Milan.

People moving from the Galfa Tower to Palazzo Citterio

Macao is not defining these acts as occupation. Macao is freeing spaces that should by public.

Macao is stressing the Power. 

(Macao taking the Subway on the way to Palazzo Citterio)

The Major Pisapia offered Macao to move to the ex-factory Ansaldo by submitting their application to the call for assignment, just like any other cultural association, institution, entity. But Macao is not an association or anything of the kind, nor it wants to become one, and MACAO is not looking for A place. 

Arrival at Palazzo Citterio

Macao is a new way of questioning the Power, an artistic activity to stress the system and modify its rules through an artistic act.

For what I seem to understand – since the over-exposition to media is been confusing concepts and has been vomiting an uncontrollable production material about it – Macao is asking to turn spaces like the Galfa Tower into Public Goods to be on assignment to Culture, if they have been left unused for over 5 years. If this happened, Milan would turn into the most interesting city in the world.

The whole happening of Macao raises political and cultural issues stimulating the debate and asking for participation which is opened to everyone's interventions. Decisions are took altogether. 

I don't mean everything is doing fine. The whole process is facing constant difficulties and negotiation. Enthusistic adherence is counterparted by rough criticisms, especially because of the "occupation" which is quick judged as an illigal act, and difficulty of even conceiving the possibility of having an horizontal and democratic decision-making not aiming to individualistic interests.

Still, a new wind is blowing. Macao is doing something, first of all. Macao is stimulating the debate about what is the border between Private and Public in a country where the Public does mainly Private intereste. MACAO is issuing the role of Art and Culture, their relationship to community, territory and institutions.

I keep my finger crossed for it to keep on this way and free more spaces. 

God knows how Milan (and Italy) needs the whole system of politics to come off its hinges.

THE ONLY WAY TO CHANGE THINGS IS TO ACT.

For those in Italy: JOIN MACAO in any way you can! 

For all the others: PLEASE, SPREAD THE WORD!

"Macao frees

Macao imagines

Macao lives

Macao is at 12, Brera Street (Subway MM2)" - Saturday, 19th May

http://www.macao.mi.it/

https://www.facebook.com/macaopagina 

Pics are taken from Macao's Facebook Page

Other landscapes and beyond

My Inov-Art adventure is finally over.
The closing meeting was last February in Guimarães (Portugal), 2012 European Capital of Culture.

The Inov-Art Program is a one-of-a-kind program that, on its 3rd edition in 2011, provided 150 grants for professional internships in any art field, to be carried out outside Portugal. Internships lasted 3 to 6 months, from July to December 2011.

It was also open to non-Portuguese that have lived in Portugal for at least one year.
I don't know any other country that has such a program and wants to invest so much in providing professional experience for culture-related jobs.

Inov-Art is founded by the Portuguese General Direction of the Arts (DGArtes), part of the former Ministry of Culture. Yes, FORMER, because the new Portuguese prime minister, Mr. Passos Coelho, elected early in 2011 summer, ELIMINATED the MINISTRY OF CULTURE.

Can a country live without culture?

Giulio Tremonti, former Italian Minister of Finance, said "You cannot eat with culture".
Dear Giulio, you are sooo wrong.
It is an important business, as many economic studies prove, and I shouldn't be the one to say it.


Wherever you are from, have you ever been abroad? What do foreigners know about your country? What is the first thing that pop into their heads?


I already described what happens as people find out that I'm Italian (http://landscapesofmajesty.blogspot.it/2011/11/italian-pride-and-foreign-prejudice-1.html).
They think of our "beauties". But they only know the old ones. Why?

1: These beauties have had some centuries to promote themselves and consolidate their fame.
2: There so old that they are remarkable only because of that.
3: More recent art is not promoted (I don't mean at all but not as much as it should be).

But this is Italy. It needs a huge change of conceptual landscapes - a changeover for fresh and new people and thoughts. And it needs to go beyond the comfort of the conviction that our beautiful artistic and naturalist landscapes are a certainty, for if we don't take care of them, they will simply disappear. 

It's been a long time since the Homo Sapiens lived only for responding to his biological needs.

What is your country famous for? What makes it recognizable?

Why do people want to visit it and get to know it better?

An Art labour - Un parto ad arte

(ITALIANO in fondo)

January 2012: I'm in Wales to follow the rehearsals of THE ECHO CHAMBER, a new performance by the Llanarth Group. It premieres in Cardiff, at Chapter Arts Centre, on Friday 27th.

The Echo Chamber
27-28 January; 2-4 February 2012
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff





I can't quite explain how honored I feel for having been able to assist to the whole creative process of this piece and how much I have been learning from this experience.

I can't even quite explain to those who are not working in the field of performing arts, how hard it is to create a devised piece in  very little time; and especially one of such complexity and richness like The Echo Chamber, which has been created in four weeks distributed over a 9 months time.

Intensive work is an understatement.

What is almost incomprehensible to those who don't work in performing art is how much work is needed to make a show. I don't mean it is the hardest job in the world, it'd be unfair. But for certain it is among the less economically rewarded and the most mentally, physically, emotionally demanding, just like any other creative work of art.

The Echo Chamber is a complex dramatical architecture about elemental matters of human existence, 'a poetic/spacial meditation on time, science, and our place in the universe'.
The poetry of the texts by playwright/dramaturg Kaite O'Reilly is embodied by performers Phillip Zarrilli and Ian Morgan, under the direction of Peader Kirk.

It is astonishing to see such experienced artists at work. The rapidity of decision making, the openness and generosity of the performers' tries-on-request, the complexity of writing and abdicating from good but nonessential lines, the always-ahead foresight and stimulus for conducting, all united for the sake of the work.
I'm speechless while I admire and watch such a struggle to the final goal, that is to share some deep and artistic reflexion stimulated by the perception of infinity while being limited to a lone life.

Just like knowing what's right and what's wrong, art isn't easy.
Yet when it comes to be and reaches the proper tempo both in time and space, it flows fluid to the audience with easiness.

People that are not working in the area often think that the performance with the public is the big job. But no, it isn't.
What costs the most it's the process. And it starts far before meeting up in some rehearsal space, with a long search for material that support the content, the investigation on the possibilities and the construction of the piece, which has a life as complex as the one of a living organism.

It is frustrating, it is tiring, there are no Sundays or spare time, for energy and mind are constantly engaged and focused on it. Even when you have some time off to spend with family and friends, there is still a part of your brain that cannot be switched off.

I don't have kids but I guess it is a little bit like giving birth to a child. Your expectation are growing and growing while you're carrying it in your womb, in your innards; you suffer through the labour of rehearsals to make it emerge; and in the end, there it is, with its own life, its beating heart.

Think of the satisfaction it can be when you've got it there, outside you, and you recall what a great journey it was to get till there. You watch your creature in wonder, just like you watch a starry sky. Wonder in front of a whole universe that is there, with you but despite you, too.

 It is always a kind of unutterable magic.

---------------
ITALIANO


Gennaio 2012: Eccomi ancora in Galles a seguire le prove di THE ECHO CHAMBER del Llanarth Group.

The Echo Chamber
27-28 January; 2-4 February 2012
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff





E' difficile spiegare quanto mi sento onorata di poter assistere e di aver assistito all'intero processo di creazione di questo lavoro teatrale e di quanto sto imparando da quest'esperienza.

E' anche difficile spiegare a chi non lavora nell'ambito quanto sia dura creare uno spettacolo teatrale in pochissimo tempo; e soprattutto quando si tratta di un lavoro di tale complessità e ricchezza, quale è The Echo Chamber, che è stato creato in sole quattro settimane distribuite nell'arco di 9 mesi.

Definirlo un "lavoro intensivo" é un eufemismo.

Ciò che è maggiormente incomprensibile per coloro che non lavorano nell'ambito delle arti performative (quindi teatro incluso) è la quantità di lavoro che ci vuole per fare un'opera teatrale.
Non dico che sia il lavoro più duro al mondo, perchè sarebbe ingiusto. Ma di certo è tra i peggio remunerati ed i più impegnativi dal punto di vista mentale, fisico ed emotivo allo stesso tempo. Come ogni altro ambito di creazione artistica, d'altra parte.

The Echo Chamber (la stanza dell'eco) é una complessa architettura drammatica sulla materia fondamentale dell'esistenza umana, "una meditazione poetica e spaziale su Tempo, scienza, e il nostro posto nell'universo'.
La poesia del testo ad opera della drammaturga Kaite O'Reilly é incarnata dalle voci e dai movimenti dagli attori Phillip Zarrilli e Ian Mogan, sotto la direzione del regista Peader Kirk.

E' straordinario vedere questi artisti esperti al lavoro. La rapidità con cui si prendono le decisioni, la generosità e la disponibilità degli attori alle richieste drammaturgiche, la complessità della scrittura e l'abdicare dalle battute ben riuscite ma di troppo, la preveggenza necessaria e gli stimoli  dello sguardo registico, il tutto per il bene dell'opera finale.
Sono a bocca aperta mentre ammiro questa fatica per raggiungere l'obiettivo finale: la condivisione di una profonda riflessione artistica scaturita dall'esperienza della percezione dell'infinità che ogni essere umano fa a partire dal limite della sua propria unica vita.

L'arte non è cosa facile, così come non lo è sapere cosa è giusto e cosa è sbagliato.
Eppure, quando arriva a realizzarsi e riesce ad avere il giusto ritmo in tempo e spazio, fluisce leggera e senza pesantezza fino allo spettatore (nonostante i temi trattati non siano necessariamente leggeri).

Chi non lavora nell'ambito pensa che il momento in cui si va in scena sia il grosso del lavoro. Ma non é così. Quello che costa di più è il processo. Comincia molto prima delle prove, con una lunga ricerca del materiale che alimenta il contenuto; e poi l'investigazione sulle possibilità di rappresentazione e costruzione del lavoro, che ha una vita complessa come quella di un organismo vivente.

E' frustrante, è stancante. Non ci sono domeniche o tempo libero, perchè l'energia e la mente sono costantemente impegnate nel processo creativo. Anche se sei in relax con la famiglia o gli amici, c'è sempre una parte del tuo cervello che non si spegne mai.

Non ho figli ma credo che il processo creativo sia un po' come dare alla luce un bambino: l'attesa che cresce mentre lo porti in grembo, nelle viscere; la sofferenza delle prove come doglie necessarie per farlo venire alla luce; e alla fine eccolo lì, con una vita propria, un proprio battito.

Pensa che soddisfazione deve essere quando ce l'hai lì davanti e ti viene in mente il grande viaggio che c'è voluto per arrivare fino a lì. Non puoi che guardare la tua creatura con stupore, come si guarda un cielo stellato. Stupore di fronte ad un universo che è lì, con te ma anche senza di te.

E' sempre una specie di ineffabile magia.

Fusion (Art) Temperature

Toronto, Canada. The capital of fusion.
Just check out the city's food offer. Funky clothes, cool people, mixed ethnies.

A skyline dominated by the CN Tower - the tallest building in the world until 2010.

Canadian immigration policies are quite flexible, so there is a big immigration flux from all over the world . Most of the immigrants come to live in the Great Toronto Area, a big urban stretch around Toronto, an expanse of multiple centres whose borders melted together.

Toronto itself is a patchwork of ethnic blocks. I'm in Little Portugal which isn't far from Little Italy that then eventually turns into China Town (one of the two China Towns). But you can find Little Greece, Korea Town and - I've been told - a once Little Vietnam.

These areas are no ghettos. People mix naturally and hybridity seems just at its starting point: the beginning of an effective meltin'-pot.

What is the art world in Toronto? Is it a fusion of multiple disciplines?

This what I'm trying to figure out by visiting museum, seeing shows, getting in contact with local artists (theatre actors and directors, dancers, choreographers, musicians, writers, academics, etc.). I've been meeting a lot of interesting people, I've seen a couple of shows (not as much as interesting, though) but I couldn't afford more (above all with no guarantee of worthiness) for a cheap ticket is at least 20/25 dollars. I have also been visiting museum of Canadian art, taking advantage of free entrances times, for -again- the tickets could be around 25 dollars (tax excluded!)

The artists receive some help for the state though, like there is a program that helps artists to buy their house. The economical situation in a time of global crisis is not as bad as in the USA or in most of Europe.

But still, one thing is for sure: culture is very expensive and not affordable by all the people.

So, what is the place of the Art in society? What's its social weight? What's its social usefulness if it can't reach everybody? Could the institutionalized art be political and/or social if not everybody can get in touch with it? Does Canadian art really correspond to Canadian fusion identity?

The Canadian duo Carol Condé and Karl Beveridge tried to raise a similar issue.

Carol Condé and Karl Beveridge - Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1976

Check the documentary film shown on the Festival Planet in focus:

http://planetinfocus.org/festival-films/portrait-of-resistancethe-art-activism-of-carole-condzand-karl-beveridge/

What's your art temperature? What is the art temperature of the city you're living in? What's the artistic fever that's infecting the country you're in this moment?

What are local issues, questions, wonderings, stylistic concerns that surround you? What artscape are you living in?