Articoli taggati con ‘urban studies’
Why we should look at space, and more closely at cities
The importance of space in the critical study of society is finally being increasingly recognized after centuries of neglect, mainly thanks to the work of geographers who are trying to emphasize it as an advantageous and insightful standpoint to look at all other human sciences.
Contemporary Art and Urban Regeneration in the City of Milan
In an enclosed space, such as a district, a city, or an area within the city, creative potential is intimately linked to the degree of knowledge and innovation, let alone the kind of cultural opportunities that space provides. On a global scale, the trend seems to be that of first creating and then promoting creative and cultural circuits in urban spaces in accordance with competitiveness and value production criteria. These strategies have multiple objectives. These range from the more intangible ones, such as finding a role for a city or an area within the knowledge economy, to the more measurable ones, such as those that show immediate economic results. Different criteria and means can be used to evaluate the achievement of the stated objectives. This article examines the current transformation of the city of Milan within the above-described interpretive framework. Such transformations are often directly linked to creative and cultural representations. This article places and examines contemporary art at the centre of these transformations. Art, and contemporary art in particular, could play a most beneficial role in city’s regeneration.
What an effort “to enter out”! Closures and resistances in the cultural sector
“It might be easy for you, but you cannot imagine how difficult is for us to enter outside”. Few years ago, walking in the yards of Santa Maria Della Pietà, psychiatric hospital already closed, Thomas Lovanio, Franco Basaglia’s colleague, got these words from one of the guest of the hospital. He was referring to the difficulty of coming back into the city, a city that years ago had jailed and forgotten him. But now, just because someone have decided to close the psychiatric hospitals, this city has to absorb him again. The articles in this issue reminded me those words. How difficult is for our artistic and cultural system to shape open and innovative relations with the environment and the urban space, and to generate an innovative and transparent management. These difficulties are surely a limit to innovation and an obstacle to the cultural growth of our country. Urban studies have long observed that the most innovative systems are those capable of hybridizing different worlds.
