Making war for peace is like … Paolo Naldini, director of Cittadellarte, proposes a reflection on Michele Santoro's programme “Forbidden Peace”, analysing its contents and points of debate and then highlighting a series of parallels between the presenter's considerations and those that emerged in his own previous editorial on the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. “We might ask: why is it forbidden?,” Naldini said in reference to peace and to the name of the show, “I think the main and simple reason is that someone might realise that there is a way to stop the war, and that is to make peace”. Paolo Naldini, 06/05/2022 Read more
The first global war and the only solution "We are witnessing a terrible battle in the Donbass and the way is paved towards a spiral leading to the apocalypse [...]. According to Sachs, the food crisis is already under way: between three and four billion people will suffer from severe food shortages. Half of the Earth's population will have no food. Taking one third of the grain supplies off the market, such is the contribution of Russia and Ukraine, is a condition that cannot be sustained". Francesco Monico, director of Accademia Unidee, offers our Journal a series of reflections on the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and on the consequences that the conflict may trigger at political and social levels on a global scale. Here is his editorial. Francesco Monico, 02/05/2022 Read more
The rennet of dreams Paolo Naldini, director of Cittadellarte, proposes an editorial on the Venice Bienniale: “Having imagination in power”, he says, “is not enough, just as the power of imagination is not enough: we also need a good dose of practices, methods, prototypes and their actual results. The instances and ideas that inhabit the worlds that this Biennale invites us to (re)discover, not only seem to me to be fully valid, but I believe it would be appropriate for them to form the basis of any contemporary cultural operation committed to tackling the epochal challenges we are facing. So, fine. But in the Bienniales I would like to see, and which we need, there should be, in my opinion, much more. So what is missing in this milk of dreams? The rennet, the enzyme that makes dreams precipitate and gives them substance”. Paolo Naldini, 27/04/2022 Read more
The Wells of Foligno "The succession of instants, corresponding to sensations (even if not all were controlled) was equivalent to a cycle that in life is normally dispersed in times and places that are considerably more difficult to determine". Below is the text written on 1 August 1967 by the artist from Biella on the occasion of the group exhibition "Lo spazio dell'immagine" (The space of the image, 1967, Foligno, Palazzo Trinci, 2 July – 1 October) and published for the first time in "Michelangelo Pistoletto", exhibition catalogue (Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1976, Electa). Michelangelo Pistoletto, 08/04/2022 Read more
Antropòceneannàmo The conference "Places of culture as protagonists of urban regeneration", held on 16 November and organised as part of the 18th edition of "Urbanpromo", focused on investigating the urban and territorial role of cultural spaces. Speaking at the event at the MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan were Paolo Naldini, director of Cittadellarte, and Michele Cerruti But, academic coordinator of Accademia Unidee. Here is Naldini’s full speech. Paolo Naldini, 22/11/2021 Read more
Water, art, open reflections on the future We are publishing a text by Franco Piunti on the theme of water proposed on the occasion of the first meeting of the project “EU STARTS4Water”, held at Cittadellarte. The doctor and former president of the Textile and Health Association talked about the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, analysing the relationship between work, environment and digitalisation, to then focus on the role of art and the so-called ethics of responsibility. Redazione, 22/07/2021 Read more
Four drugs offered by culture as a cure against automatization Paolo Naldini, director of Cittadellarte, reflects on the automatisation of psychic life, to which the human being, in the current geological era of the Anthropocene, has been increasingly inclined. From this perspective, Naldini first analyses four devices that play a key role in this process - habit, fear, awe and conformation - then identifies as many antidotes to promote de-automatisation: creativity, research, dialogue and civic engagement. “The psychosocial research undertaken at Cittadellarte with workshops dedicated to art for social transformation and the art of demopraxy,” he says, “has led us to identify four antidotes, counterweights or drugs to work with to counterbalance the uncontrolled effects of the rampant automatisation we are experiencing”. Paolo Naldini, 06/04/2021 Read more
Participation and its (dis)contents. How can art contribute to collective deliberation processes and participation in civic governance Paolo Naldini, the director of Cittadellarte, presents a series of artistic initiatives focusing on effectiveness of impact, deeply rooted in their contexts and aware of human rights, thus proving that there exist socially engaged practices that have been dealing with participation and its discontents. “There may be hundreds of other inspiring projects,” says Naldini, “that could lead us to see, or at least to sense, that involving artists initiatives in collective deliberation processes is not only viable but also desirable. I hope these will serve as a shared knowledge basis for tackling more specifically the question of the possible relation between art and collective deliberation processes and participation in civic governance". Paolo Naldini, 20/01/2021 Read more
