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Flavia Barca *, extracted from
essay “For a public cultural policy contemporary” being published in the book “There is a changing Italy” , edited by Mario and Paola Morcellini Gasparo for Mondadori University
The article was originally published online on the website of the author.
Culture and contemporary
Italy has an archaeological, artistic landscaped relevant and invaluable. But it does not have the economic resources and political will to be able to fully protect it. This is not only of the collapse of Pompeii or the many monuments abandoned among the weeds, but also the thousands of artifacts that lie not cataloged in the basements of many administrations, museums increasingly distant from its audience, cinemas that close one after another, of entire pieces of territory gutted with exceptions to the rules on the landscape, in areas such as dance and theater definanziati and without direction.
missing, that’s the point, a strategy for each vertical field of culture and, along with this, a strategy that will look at culture and creativity in a key systemic, integrated as it means the European Union, able to relate in a unique insight into the different areas and think in terms of supply chain, where culture is the point of departure or arrival of complex processes and a variety of actors, industrial, cognitive paths.
missing, more in general, a national project of conservation, protection and enhancement. This difficulty is reflected and is the daughter of a lack of vision on the relationship between culture, landscape and the future, then a public project on the future of cities and territories that pass through reuse – or, as discussed below, the translation – of our assets and spaces, and through the development of new art, thus creating spaces that promote creativity and innovation. So an idea of contemporary .
Too long has been perpetuated in our country a disconnect between conservation and development, as two separate things, rather than inextricable. And the focus on conservation has escaped force a draft cultural policy and innovative identity.
The housing of the past has not, however, the sole purpose of conservation. Ancient art finds its own reason for existence thanks to the art-historical research more innovative. Cultural production is measured by experimentation and contemporary reconnects memory and innovation, where the tradition to create a representation of the present and an imaginary future, significantly contributing to the development of the community.
Too long a static view of archeology and museums has created a rift between the citizens and the cultural landscape, only to divert young people – and not only them – spaces institutionally dedicated to the enjoyment of culture. Rome is emblematic in this sense: let’s Via dei Fori Imperiali looking at the monuments of the past as something beautiful but far from us, from our daily lives, by our individual stories. We admire scenarios “postcard” as closed objects in their essence, without thinking that the cultural heritage and landscape are also their identity – as human beings – in the making, are processes, and their preservation is a public project, which concerns the choice and the commitment of each individual citizen. There is, in fact, sharing on ” public use of history, “of the past. If the worst case is removed, at best there is a sense of separation, inability to integrate the past in everyday life. It is a rift between the city and sense of public affairs, as if the benefits that we enjoy every day are not the result of a collective project protected by those who implement and safeguard the constitutional principles.
You at this point that summarizes the meaning and purpose of public intervention. Because it is certainly true that the data on the enjoyment of culture are important, and well does the Minister Franceschini to increase access to one of the flagships of its work, but the increase in demand is also the end of any private entrepreneur – or public entity that behaves as a good father – while the distinctive role of the administrator public is more tied to the “how” than the “what.” Ensuring culture all is a critical step, but ensure all a culture that can increase the chances of individual growth and knowledge of the world, and therefore of freedom, is an essential goal and their only public administrator.
The road is thus to initiate a policy of cultural heritage, landscape, in which the director takes a position, expressing its vision of the heritage and its “contemporary sense”, that is, its link with the life of men and women. Crucial issue that concerns the center of the city but also, and above all, the suburbs, where the “cultural diversity” of ruin can not express their own identity becoming all too often in place of environmental and social degradation. And that also applies to the relationship between culture and landscape, now more than ever crucial to our very survival.
The emphasis on preservation of public investment in the absence of an integrated vision protection thus becomes, in fact, lack of planning, inability to express their own cultural identity if, with Steiner “a culture is a sequence of translations and transformations of constants (the translation tends to change).” It is stressed in this way the responsibilities of the public in interpreting the past and plan the future. Hence the need to develop an idea of contemporary, as we build our cities of the future and protect the landscapes, of how culture can become the road and the engine of this vision: the land from which (the ruins, the bridge with the past, the system of values) and the energy with which to build (creativity, where the culture is combined with innovation, which is nothing more than an idea of building the future, and talent).
points “traditional” culture, monuments, ruins, as well as museums and libraries, they must be re-inhabited, that is raised by the mere role evidence of the past, to be launched towards a new society. What it means to preserve the identity of a place, of a well? Means immobilize in its original essence or allow this to be contaminated with more and more defiled? It was discussed recently about the Colosseum: close it in a glass case and musealizzarlo permanently or try to “riabitarlo” with events, music, “provocation” for the modern visitor? So in what social context of “use” and “reuse” put it. And in that urban context? You can talk about these issues calmly and out of the pre-established positions, often dictated from the practice of a country where too often new has been synonymous with decay, building amnesties, growth without rules etc etc etc.
This is the great challenge, and it is an urgent challenge, before many parts of our country – landscapes, monuments, places of culture, squares, ideas – definitely slipping in the dust or, at best, turning into major theme parks, poised between the sacred and the picturesque.
re-socialize the culture, riabitarla, project it into the future is, in fact, very different, and far more complex, since rethink within a circuit of entertainment. The point is not – only – make the use of culture more immersive, engaging, and then quantitatively significant. Surely this can work, and often very well: an example of all the Domus Romane di Palazzo Valentini in Rome curated by Alberto Angela and Paco Lanciano, who, with the help of technology and art of the story, have turned four walls in ruins (let me forcing) in an experience, a journey through the time machine.
Along these lines, in addition to our architectural heritage, it would be nice to see come to life many museums and art today, in some cases, look more like a storage space that transmission and sharing of thoughts, stimuli, values (which is, remember, a sense of culture). The museums, but also all the other exhibition spaces, often express their competitiveness more with the architecture, the container, which with its contents. They are places that speak less and less to the contemporary citizen, merely a function conservative elencativa, at best sacral. When not obstructed by large crowds or excessive accumulation of work, the user can, in the museum, that closeness to God (which is the picture of Kahlo or the ancient manuscript) that oscillates between pure ecstasy (absence, as often in Italy, of effective knowledge support to the work) and the transmission of knowledge. But opportunities are few and small numbers. The transmission of knowledge, then, absolutely episodic and limited.
The culture continues, in fact, to be a sector strongly elitist, something for the few. And indeed the spaces dedicated to this (cinemas, theaters, libraries, bookstores) are disappearing from many parts of the country, snatching an opportunity for growth and social inclusion in a very substantial piece of new generations. Yet if the culture (an archaeological site, a space for music etc) is an adhesive, a means of identity for a community, disappeared references sharing the same democratic community it will remain only to express their identity to “difference”, for otherness compared to ‘ other by itself. Thus reinforcing the racism, the loneliness, the social rage. More than forty years that we talk about the role of culture in the suburbs, the relationship between culture and society, between culture and democratic development, but now seems to be making a step back. And this will leave the so-called “new centrality” more and more sun.
This reasoning, it is important to stress this, covers both ancient and modern and contemporary art. Both tangible and intangible heritage. If there is no doubt that the government is gradually recovering delays in policies for contemporary art, yet is completely lacking a vision capable of descrambling all the assets in a single view, Contemporary . The real issue, in fact, is to reconnect the city to a cultural experience that hopefully take root and Gemmi new courses and knowledge. A cultural experience that is able to interpret the needs of social and sharing that are proper to our socio-economic environment and that it becomes a great opportunity to rethink the contemporary of the country (and that tomorrow is also a means of re-branding, and then repositioning of Italy in the international context).
It is a very long and complex process, but unavoidable. The needs of social and sharing, that are then mirrored to the loss of centrality of the family and, gradually, of education, must also find answers to – and through – cultural offer. The culture must be embedded in new transmission networks of identity and consumption should become the new virtual wall on which to sit our children. An opportunity to meet, talk, exchange ideas, make choices about the future, grow.
More and more, in many countries of northern Europe, it is re-evaluating the artistic heritage as an opportunity d ‘ continuous meeting with citizenship, with the goal of building moments of relationship, dialogue and use of culture and urban spaces, between citizens and heritage. Here too the centers of transmission of knowledge – the monuments, museums, theaters, cinemas, libraries – are open to become places where we dialogue, even together, shared with the past , the present and the future. Places where one experiences and builds. Contemporary laboratories. Art, dance, theater, music, cinema emerging literature must be incurred to restore the ancient sense, become a resource of the present and future assets, for a new idea of citizenship and nationality.
Cultural policies must precede everything else, “the person”, his experience, his relationships, where the true ultimate purpose of the cultural product is the use, as emphasized by European action in this area, in full consistency with the system Italian constitutional. It is, therefore, also of redistribute culture while we look back, and think in its redistribution becomes a way to produce new ideas, influences, possibilities of the future. It also becomes a way to make culture a political project “democratic”, that expresses a vision of “popular” culture, as a tool in order to change their own destiny, to fight all forms of divides and thus , give everyone the tools to understand and modify the common space, the rules of the community.
Sinibaldi stresses the importance of access to and sharing of culture “must in all modes allow access to all products and cultural consumption “seems obvious, but public policies do not go in this direction, there is no money, but there is above all the deep awareness and appropriate strategies. Sinibaldi also uses often, in his reflections on the role of culture, the term, very important, want . Here, I think it is necessary for a public cultural policy, start from the need to promote the desire of culture and at the same time a culture that generates desires. Why did it let that wishes were catalyzed by scratch or from slot machines. The push public in this direction means first put culture at the heart of the political agenda. L ‘ urgency of culture , next to the city to have less degraded, with better urban transport etc. it is necessary to give the citizen a look high , the sovereign of their own future.
The emphasis on the dissemination / use (use a active , in the line of reasoning made so far), but it is good to clarify, is likely, as signaled by Forte and as mentioned above, to reduce the value of culture in a matter of numbers. In this sense, it is necessary that the centrality of person (and therefore of a community network of relations to individual dots) is always negotiated with a strong focus on common good . Keep both points of view now seems a synthesis necessary, especially if we look at the individual good as a crucial need for a realization on earth, here and now, and to the common good as intergenerational collective interest, including that future generations.
The culture then becomes a meeting ground between pleasure, personal elevation, freedom and ethics. The synthesis of draft present and future. Rehabitation a space that builds relationships and builds bridges, not only into the future but between different societies and cultures. This is not the place to go into detail of the planning public likely to produce movement virtuoso identified above. But some other consideration on the vision and method, the step change necessary to achieve these objectives, must be added to complete the picture.
The culture as an integrated system
> The first theme, the keystone of the entire scenario, given its central position and its ability to act as agent detonator of all the challenges that we have briefly mentioned above, is innovation.
Technological innovation , the knowledge economy, is the challenge which will be played processes competitive world in the coming decades. It is the possibility of including products and services in a network that accelerates and facilitates sharing processes and consumption. Culture, in this context, can play a key role, both as a product (most accessible, closest to the citizen) that as ethical model of the future. Culture can and must be the bearer of a new way of thinking about the urban environment, citizen services, common goods; a smart and sustainable way, linking to the challenge of new technologies (as a lever for economic development, competitiveness and ability to intercept and promote new skills and new employment) to create a society based on fairness and knowledge.
This way, and this is another very critical, it can not move from the encounter between culture and science. A country that, as we know, has the massive delays in scientific training and in the very idea of the value of science, can heal this vulnus recovering scientific knowledge as a major cultural project. In fact, the beasts of the maker which are proving so successful in Italy go exactly in this direction. It is the closing of a circle between knowing craftsman, heritage and innovation.
Italy, as we have already had occasion to emphasize, has a lot of potential to make the cultural capital of a lever development. And this will happen when innovation will marry the culture of this country producing widespread creativity. When innovation will become the lever to push the new generations to invest energy and talent to transform our cultural heritage and project it into the future. When the culture is so capital attractive to young people who flee abroad not only for lack of financial resources but, more importantly, the lack of a future project. The innovation will allow us to relate in a new way our heritage and our excellence, bring them closer and understandable to all citizens, project them on the international scene to stress that Italy is not just a tourist attraction or a beautiful theme park but it is also a virtuoso of the future project.
The link between culture and innovation naturally provides important investment, not only in the direction of individual designs and interventions, however sustainable with important contributions by the Funds European and Horizon but, above all, in a conceptual revolution that has the digitalization of the country as a first step. Clearly, the close relationship that exists between the digital agenda and culture. And what cultural tools and digital tools can support and strengthen each other, in a mutual process of literacy, with a very significant impact on the social and economic fabric of the country.
In line with this project of “smart cultures” is the the end of the rigid separation between artistic languages Whereas in the context of contemporary art, the difference between dance, theater, art, music, cinema is increasingly thin. Institutions, while retaining their own specific vocation, must be open to projects that involve different languages and different aspects of the culture. This also means use spaces in an obsolete, breaking habits and ushering in unprecedented ways to use by the public. The places destined to cultural change, therefore their role gaining greater importance within the reality and the local community and thus become important opportunities for discussion and collective use. Not surprisingly, all over the world, museums, theaters, concert halls and cinemas more attentive to contemporary are modifying their architecture to accommodate eateries, spaces dedicated to the game and to childhood, bookshops, libraries and media, areas wi fi to work and study. No more places to visit for a few hours during exhibitions, stagings, concerts and screenings, but living spaces all day long that they become an integral part of everyday city life.
The traditional areas of dissemination of culture must more and more dialogue, not only with the fabric of the city, but also with informal places and extemporaneous. In order for Italy to become a great laboratory dedicated to contemporary cultural production it is necessary to leave the logic according to which the art benefits from and is produced only within the traditional spaces. Contemporary culture more experimental born, in fact, in informal places, occupies space in disuse, has the power to undermine the negative view that characterizes some peripheral areas of the city and to redevelop the spaces. Role of the administration is to encourage and facilitate its emergence. The task of cultural institutions is to intercept the best of art and creativity that develops nell’informalità and offer space and support to enable them to settle and grow.
The entire city can become a place of artistic expression. Streets, parks, abandoned buildings, construction sites, archaeological sites, libraries are the places in which to develop street art, urban dance, site-specific projects, creative residencies, performing art, temporary installations with the aim of enable innovative forms of relationship between contemporary art, urban context and nature , involving different subjects both at local, national and international. But the cultural planning needs to invest, financially and ideally, in addition to the fabric of the city also the inland areas, making accelerator rehabitation new practices and enhancement of abandoned villages, of degraded areas and in need of a new central identity.
The culture can become the basis for the construction of new networks that allow to re-enter even the most difficult areas in circuits of development and collective knowledge. The contemporary languages are increasingly using location obsolete breaking schemes, stimulate the imagination and allow greater creative freedom. In this context art becomes a tool to redevelop suburban areas and degraded areas regenerate abandoned, rediscover monuments and sites rarely visited, engage citizens in community life, remember. The unused buildings will become catalysts of desires and projects related to creativity, art and new social and incubators of ideas capable of mobilizing resources and energy aimed at the development of new economies, skills and labor. They will also be training grounds for experimenting with new models of shared management.
The art spread is today not only a vision, but the only way to respond to a need for culture “other “increasingly clear, but not covered by the traditional distribution. This is evident in all sectors, from cinema to cultural heritage, theater, dance. The art spread generates, in return, increased sensitivity and citizen involvement, a multiplier effect on all levels of the supply chain.
Of course this effect is supported and amplified by the promotion (again returns the apparent role of the public) of a spectator more active and aware and more production smart and innovative .
Side User appears, in fact, a most significant investment for training programs involving adults and children with the aim to awaken the imagination and to create, through the study and implementation of innovative artistic grammars, a responsible and involved public. This takes on particular significance in the new centrality where the continued lack of places, traditional or not, for the dissemination of culture, has deleted the term culture of the alphabet generations. This is the way to put the citizen – especially the most difficult, away, marginalized – and closer to the center of cultural policies, as a user of culture, but also as a citizen active in its defense and promotion.
Side production, the challenge is to exploit the talents of the country: through programs dedicated to them and promoting calls for residences, thus providing opportunities to emerging artists for experimentation and growth, and through open calls and innovative. It is evident today the presence of a latent creativity that misses from time mode of expression; subject’s task is promoting the public but also intercept it, enhance it, and multiply it, favoring the spread in each territory, with particular attention to those so far marginalized.
The country may become so contemporary laboratory, an incubator in which to grow new spaces for artistic experimentation and innovation, a crossroads of cultural itineraries inhabited and dynamic, able to replace the mere fruition the concept of participation and active involvement of citizens in a continuous relationship of dialogue and exchange. The “conversation” thus becomes the key word of this argument because, with Solimine, is the interaction that allows us to understand, interpret and produce new ways.
A possible road- map
The Report on the RPA in its conclusions highlights a key element of the cultural policies of our country: “In the cultural sector is the significant discrepancy which is evident when you compare the statements and intent programming with the actual choices. Culture is traditionally a strategic axis in the statements by directors and politicians, central and local, at the same time, the first object of cutting resources in all phases of restriction of public finances “. This practice should be stopped. Culture is a great opportunity to take up the meaning and the revival of Europe. No longer – just – a matter of identity and history, is a matter of the future.
As Alfieri writes about the ‘model Bilbao’ “before a crisis situation grave, touches primarily to the institutions and the other “actors” strong shoulder their responsibilities and have the courage to take risks. “
Today we can choose what we want to become, and why. In line with the Creative Europe program 2014-2020, which sees the clear desire of the European Union more closely to communicate the heritage and cultural activities in the creative industries, Italy has a responsibility to confront the considerable possibilities of selling the historical and artistic heritage offered by new digital technologies and technological innovation and at the same time think of digital as a means of creativity and production of culture.
No one can be exempted, also, by ensuring that its competitive edge on the culture does not materialize in a process of reinforcing creativity industrial and social development.
This means an important ideological change of pace. An integrated vision of culture and creativity makes it possible to overcome the dichotomy between high and low culture, between culture and science, culture value and value of culture, between the desire to preserve the memory of our past and the implementation of ideas and innovative tools.
In order to find a balance in this negotiation, we need a thorough reflection on the direction of public policies, or any idea of reform remains only an “adjustment” irrelevant if not pejorative, and the policy of “adjustments” is a typical procedure italics that avoids collisions with vested interests, but does not reach the goal. Ambiguity, lack of choices transparent, you are likely to be confused with the abandonment of the enhancement of the protection, the emphasis on enjoyment with the subordination to economic interests, management efficiency with the abdication of public scrutiny.
So where to start? I suggest a road-map that I can become a work platform for the activation of a national strategy on culture.
1. The culture must be placed at the core of public policy for the country , and we would like that the next document of Economics and Finance of the Ministry of Economy sterzasse clearly in that direction. This is the prerequisite.
2. The culture should be relaunched as essential service . An interesting proposal, suggested by Testini, is to retract the access to culture among the essential levels of service (LEP), provided by the reform of Title V of the Constitution.
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