Viale delle Metamorfosi - L'arte si fa strada: Urban festival of contemporary arts
'Viale delle Metamorfosi - L'arte si fa strada' is a festival aimed at investigating the theme of 'metamorphosis' and its declinations, through the languages of contemporary arts. The project addresses the possibility of creating a tangible and intangible heritage in the spaces of social aggregation of the street from which the project takes its name, located in Ponticelli district (Naples, Italy). The project focuses on the phenomena of cultural and social marginality.
Local
Italy
Naples
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
PON Città Metropolitane 2014-2020 - ASSE 3 - AZIONE 3.3.1 – Progetto NA3.3.1b “Spazi di Innovazione Sociale – Percorsi di inclusione attiva”
No
Yes
2022-10-31
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): COLLETTIVO ZERO APS Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: SVEVA Last name of representative: VENTRE Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: President - project manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via G. Carducci 19 Town: Naples Postal code: 80121 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 333 535 7174 E-mail:c.collettivo.zero@gmail.com Website:https://www.collettivozero.org/
“Viale delle Metamorfosi-L’arte si fa strada" is a contemporary art festival, particularly public art, which took place in Naples (Italy) from 7th to 9th October 2022. The festival was the final part of a year-long project, during which the phenomena of urban, social, economic and cultural decay persisting in the Ponticelli district, located in the eastern suburbs of the city of Naples, were addressed.
The project concerned various places in the eastern suburbs and also in the city centre, but concentrated its programme at the Centro Polifunzionale Ciro Colonna in Ponticelli, a former school, located in an area characterised by massive social housing built under the reconstruction plan following the devastating earthquake of 1980. The Centre, now managed by a network of associations, is dedicated to an innocent mafia victim and offers both educational and training opportunities and psychological support to families and young people in the neighbourhood.
All the preliminary activities for the festival were planned and implemented in collaboration with local associations in order to enhance the existing heritage and stimulate social and urban regeneration processes. Other purposes set by the project include raising awareness of diversity and listening to others. To do this, during the year Collettivo Zero APS activated several artist residencies, during which artists realised participatory artworks thanks to the support of the social operators and the young people who attend the Ciro Colonna Center on a daily basis.
During the three-day festival there were talks, public presentations, exhibitions, performances and moments of conviviality. All events were made possible thanks to the collaboration with the project partners.
Culture
Participatory art
Publicness
Inclusiveness
Innovation
The first edition was realised thanks to the PON Città Metropolitane 2014-2020 fund, to which other economic resources, both direct and indirect, were later added. Direct resources included: donations from members of the promoting association and external supporters; a crowdfunding campaign; the sale of gadgets; voluntary donations during the events.
The real goal of economic sustainability achieved by the festival, which should also be considered the main indirect source, was the synergy with other local realities. The free or very advantageous exchange of goods and services, such as venues, catering, specialised technical staff, equipment and sound services, allowed significant savings in the project budget, reducing the need for further funding. The exchange was agreed with other organisations according to the principle of mutual benefit, which consolidated the alliances already established in the area.
The business model used and the results achieved were openly appreciated by the public administration, which described the project as exemplary, emphasising how the association had overall met the objectives of the fund. We also believe that the uniqueness of 'Viale delle Metamorfosi' lies in its community orientation: a festival designed for the community and realised thanks to its support.
The project involved various artists who created their works through workshops and meetings with the community that attends the Centro Ciro Colonna in Ponticelli. The teenagers, who frequently attend groups and classes in this space, became co-authors of the artworks, which were displayed in a collective exhibition during the days of the festival.
In order to enhance research on gender issues regarding public space and art, two travelling exhibitions were hosted, curated by other associations from Naples and other areas of Italy. In this way, for the first time the centre was used as a formal exhibition location for a cultural and artistic event. This occasion stirred up very positive feelings from visitors and regular users of the space, including the cultural operators and educators who daily work at the Centre. Many people said they were surprised by the temporary transformation of some spaces that were only used for storage. Despite the fact that the renovation was not permanent, many of them realised the building's potential, giving the associations the incentive to continue the collaboration for future co-planned events.
Among the most appreciated aspects of the festival was the public and free programme of events, offered in different locations over the three days: walks, talks, and live events that involved a varied and curious public. The walks made it possible to get to know and discover the beauty in the surrounding area. The closing party was dedicated to the entertainment of theatre, dance and music, bringing the festival closer to an audience not strictly interested in contemporary art.
The entire programme was designed to offer a 'user experience' to increase interest in the festival, its themes and the neighbourhood.
We immediately set the following actions as fundamental objectives of the project: to raise community awareness about diversity; to show the collective value of public space and the urban landscape, as common good to be regenerated and safeguarded; to experiment and disseminate inclusive and participatory methodologies for communities, capable of developing a sense of identity and belonging to places and encouraging new socio-cultural dynamics.
Regarding the first point, we were able to include in the programme two free exhibitions on the theme of queerness and body positivity, asking the curators to guide the public through the visit in order to enable them to investigate more on the topic and possibly answer some questions.
The use of the Centre as an informal "museum" and location for live events emphasised the collective value of this space, not only from a social but also from an aesthetic point of view. Through talks and thematic walks, we were able to bring a diverse audience from the city centre, including foreign tourists, who knew neither the Ciro Colonna Centre nor the Ponticelli district, and managed to make them appreciate its social architecture, street art and all its potential.
In order to achieve our goals, we decided to leave most of the activities free of charge, in order to ensure that they were affordable for everyone. Those who wanted to support the project could make a voluntary donation or buy a gadget. The choice of locations was also made so as not to cause architectural barriers for people with mobility disabilities.
The main beneficiaries of the project are the associations operating in Ponticelli and based in the polyfnctional Centre. During all phases of the project, workshops, laboratories and meetings were organised in dialogue with them, involving their target groups, mainly composed of young people between 11 and 18. Their engagement in the activities promoted during the artist residencies made it possible to finalise the works proposed by the artists in residence.
In fact, during the artist residencies, it was necessary for each artist to enter into the social processes of the area, questioning the urban landscape and the social context, taking care of the interrelationships that exist between the environment and human settlement. The artist residency thus became an instrument of co-creation and collective action for the transformation of imaginaries, especially for the youngest participants in the workshop activities.
The associations supported the project and recognised its value, so much so that Collettivo Zero was involved in further activities. Moreover, the project attracted the attention of other organisations , both local and national, to be activated during the festival, who decided to propose new collaborations. This made it possible to achieve a direct exchange between city centre and suburbs and to increase the festival's audience.
Thanks to a constant and diversified programme of communication through the website and mail invitations, but above all thanks to an inclusive editorial plan designed for the project's social media channels, a very diverse audience was enabled to follow the progress of each activity, even from a distance. Thanks to this, people perceived the need to support the initiative through the crowdfunding campaign, which reached its target within a few months.
The project was born in 2019 as a group thesis to achieve a diploma in "Museum and event curatorship" at the Istituto Europeo del Design - IED in Rome. After winning an award as best thesis on gender issues promoted by "EDGE - Leaders for change", the team members were in the city of Naples, where several months have been spent searching for local collaborations to make a sustainable project.
In June 2020, the group participated in a public call for new ideas for the most vulnerable neighbourhoods in the city promoted by the administration of Naples. Winning this fund included a training phase in the field of social innovation and an assistance in the execution of activities. Thanks to the winning of the call, the sponsorships by the public administration and the companies were made official. The number of organisations involved in the partnership reached 31 organisations: in particular, the project was supported by 1 public company, 1 local administration, 1 national public institution, 1 consortium, 1 city foundation, 4 national associations and 19 organisations present and operating in the east area of Naples.
The associations were intercepted and involved in one or more project actions for their commitment in the field of art, including theatre and music, but, above all, peer education and the fight against crime and gender-based violence. Shifting our focus to the city centre of Naples, several artistic institutions and companies collaborated in the realisation of the festival. The involvement of local food and wine production entities and consortia made it possible to promote and valorise the local riches during the days of the festival. In order to enrich the schedule of the three-day event, travelling exhibitions were also set up, including Ultraqueer, a project from the Rome-based association "TWM Factory".
‘Viale delle Metamorfosi’ is a public art festival, so the main actors in the project were the artists. Several curators, as well as architects and journalists were involved during the festival days, all of them linked by the theme of culturally-based social and urban regeneration. The discussion points offered by the invited professionals enriched our team's research and enabled the dissemination of certain themes, including art as a vision of transformation and gender equality.
Also very important for the project was education through art, carried out during the artists’ workshops. The mediation work of the Ciro Colonna Centre's educators was crucial, as they were able to capture the interest and curiosity of young people and make them participate in the activities. Without their support, the artists would certainly have had several difficulties in realising their proposals.
With an eye to the future, the opportunity to develop a cultural project within an educational centre definitely lays the foundations to regenerate the Ciro Colonna Centre even more and try to enrich the cultural and artistic expression of the district. Overall, these aspects allowed the creation of a connection with people and partners involved and set the basis for the realisation of a next edition of the festival.
Fully responding to the theme of 'metamorphosis', the festival allowed the experimentation of innovative uses of the district's spaces. We organised a talk on a train, activated thematic walks to discover popular architecture and street art, talked about metamorphosis through a theatrical play and allowed all visitors to have lunch in a social refectory. The activities were more successful than expected at the beginning of the project, reaching and sometimes exceeding the expected number of visitors. Some foreign tourists visiting the city crossed Naples in search of our events.
One of the unexpected goals achieved is that, by bringing the contemporary art scene closer to this neighbourhood and to the activities of the organisations, a propagation effect of good practices was generated. It is no coincidence that the new project, winner of the fourth edition of Creative Living Lab (national call for proposals), and promoted by our organization together with other associations for the Ciro Colonna Center, has been called "Resonance House".
The approach to art was felt by both the participants/visitors of the festival activities and the official project partners. In confirmation of this, local operators subsequently found an increased inclination of their beneficiaries to take part in culturally oriented events. In addition, thanks to the mediation work with the partner organisations, the project made it possible to overcome, even if only partially, some ongoing conflicts between organisations in the area, allowing a renewed spirit of collaboration to spread. With these results, we prearrange the development of new urban and social regeneration projects, which are now being implemented.
The innovative approach pursued by Viale delle Metamorfosi project is to strengthen the synergy between the community and cultural mediators. Just as our logo symbolises a bridge connecting two buildings along 'Viale delle Metamorfosi', the project aims to create a connection between those who propose (the activists and educators) and those who receive (the community, from the youngest to the oldest), regaining a renewed sense of cultural identity to this place.
An outstanding aspect of the project is that it aims to conduct actions horizontally together with its primary beneficiaries: the organisations active in the district. In fact, thanks to a preparatory work of familiarisation in the area, our team activated a mediation process also between the associations themselves.
With their help, it was possible to identify and engage different user groups and ensure the success of the events. These included workshops aimed at the participatory realisation of artworks that artists were asked to design for this place. Participation served to create a "bridge" between the community and the languages of art, so that in the finished artwork there will be found the people who contributed to its creation, and most importantly, the memory of the generative process to be passed on.
In relation to the objectives of the call for proposals that financed the project, the following goals can be considered achieved: to have carried out a public art project and made accessible an art form consisting of ephemeral processes; to have brought subjects habitually less connected to cultural venues closer to a series of art-oriented events; to have succeeded in developing a contemporary art project in a context of high cultural deprivation and defined as marginal, activating a process of innovation that leads the community into the future.
The organisation adopted the change management methodology and therefore planned to divide the project into three macro-phases of work:
- Investigation (observation and research): this phase aimed to study the socio-cultural and urban context by involving the community and submitting questionnaires and/or online interviews. The survey carried out formed the basis for the following phases for both the artists-in-residence and the public programme of the festival, whose aim was to build a participatory cultural offer. This phase also helped to enable collaborations with associations and to set out the support they would provide for the project.
- Co-creation (concept generation): the proactive involvement of the community began through multidisciplinary and multidimensional activities: artist residencies and workshops were implemented to realise the works in participation with the community. There were three artist residencies: two artists realised the artworks with the teenagers of the Ciro Colonna Centre while a third artist started a personal research. The first artist in residence, Edoardo Aruta, is currently developing a new project in synergy with local associations.
- Return: this is the moment when the installations and/or artistic actions were shared, accompanied by the events that marked the three days of the festival and the closure of the first edition. The events of this phase made its daily visitors experience the potential of the Centre.
A fourth important step followed, the Integration phase, which introduced into a process to metabolise the interventions, which were gifted to the community with a perspective of creating a new artistic, cultural and social heritage. This was followed by the impact assessment phase and the closure of the project.
The format we have created could easily be reproduced in other places by following the methodology outlined in section 12. In the first " investigation" phase, the territory would be studied and possible stakeholders identified. Once the stakeholders have been selected and the relationship with them has been established, we will move on to the project phase to enter into the partnership agreements that will support the economic sustainability of the project. Furthermore, it is easy to understand that conditions of urban and social deprivation are also present in other contexts and therefore our format would meet new beneficiaries, even if in different contexts.
In designing the festival, we took into account the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular:
'4 - Quality education': the workshops organised during the artistic residencies were part of the peer education and art education programmes of the partner associations, improving the quality of the education offered at the Centro Ciro Colonna.
'5 - Gender equality' and '10 - Reducing gender inequalities': part of the scheduled exhibitions and talks aimed at raising awareness and dissemination on gender issues. We also want to emphasise that the board of our association consists of 9 women and 3 men.
'8 - Decent employment and economic growth': this is one of the project indirect goals, but the aim of the festival is also to be an economical opportunity for the district to grow. A development conceived on the cultural offer which could possibly be not only centralised in the city centre, but also extended to the suburbs.
'11 - Sustainable cities and communities': the festival intends to create valorisation and enrichment of the community's tangible and intangible heritage, helping to regain a sense of belonging.
'16 - Peace justice and solid institutions': the project aims to help the area's associations in their work against school drop-outs and criminal organisations.
'17 - Partnership for the goals': this goal was largely met from our association and was the basis for the programme of the festival.
