Art as community, inclusion, critique of power: Florence kicks off Scripta Festival 2020

Despite the difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Scripta Festival in Florence will be held again this year. Indeed: the 2020 edition was created precisely to react to the state of crisis in which the world of culture in Italy finds itself, of which financial scarcity is only the latest and most obvious symptom. However, the festival, which again this year will be directed by art critic Pietro Gaglianò, changes its structure and moves away from traditional art venues and towards a sharing of knowledge in spaces where the values of mutuality and culture as a primary good and accessible to all have always been cultivated.

The subtitle of this edition is The Rising City, an explicit quotation from Umberto Boccioni ’s 1910 canvas, considered his first Futurist work, presented in the First Exhibition of Free Art, an experimental exhibition, even for the audience it was aimed at: the workers and other frequenters of the Casa del Lavoro in Milan. Boccioni’s social sensibility and depiction of a growing city, observed from the position of the street and the workforce, inspired this edition of the festival, which aims to cultivate the awareness that the forts of culture should be opened and made accessible even when dealing with topics seemingly intended for an elite.

And so it is that this year’s festival really goes everywhere. In a number of People’s Houses in and around Florence, meetings will be held that have sprung from reflection on texts that are important to art criticism, but which will be set up to provide ample space for discussion and confrontation on issues of community, critique of systems of power, and social inclusion. Each meeting will feature scholars and activists who will address as cross-sectional an audience as possible in a horizontal dimension, an open symposium for understanding and broadening horizons.

The body, the crossroads of every question about labor and the social dimension, is at the center of Tableau Vivant 2020, the installation that Marta Dell’Angelo has conceived expressly for the space of the Brac Bookstore, which has always been the beating heart of Scripta and the site of the first event of this edition, which will take place on Friday, October 16 at 6:30 p.m. The artist’s project is part of his research that for years has been exploring the possibilities of representation of the body through the different languages of art. Then, from October 17, for three consecutive Saturdays, the meetings will take place in three different People’s Houses. In addition, each appointment will see in parallel the holding of a session of the Scuola di Santa Rosa, a project founded by artists Francesco Lauretta and Luigi Presicce that brings to various public spaces in Italy, as well as abroad, a life drawing symposium open to all, a school without teachers where exchange, reflection and recognition of the other are the main pedagogical tools.

The first event, at the People’s House in Settignano (Saturday, Oct. 17, 6:30 p.m.), is with the volume Hyperpolis. Architecture and Capital, written by Serge Latouche and Marcello Faletra, who through the analysis of urban space dismantle the ideology of an increasingly aesthetic capitalism, a vector of social control through culture. Faletra will be at Scripta for a multi-voice discussion with anthropologist Franco La Cecla and artist Andrea Masu. On Saturday 24, the festival moves to the People’s House “Progress.” Angela Maderna will present the volume The Other Half of the Avant-Garde Forty Years Later (Saturday, Oct. 24, 6:30 p.m.), dedicated to the capital exhibition that Lea Vergine created in 1980 with works by more than one hundred artists active within the early 20th century avant-garde movements who had been unjustly erased from historiography. On the themes of art, equality, and hegemonies, the author will discuss with art historian Laura Lombardi and Florentine activist Antonella Bundu. The last event (Saturday, Oct. 31, 6:30 p.m.) will be at the SMS in Peretola where Flavio Favelli will present the book Bologna la rossa, a diary of images, drawings and memories of that same dramatic Italy that marked the artist’s aesthetic education.

The three days in the Case del Popolo will conclude with evening appointments: first protagonist will be actress Anna Bonaiuto (Oct. 17, 9:30 p.m.) with the reading Libertà, readings from political texts and poetic texts, with excerpts from Hanna Arendt, Michail Bakunin, Antonio Gramsci, Karl Marx, Pablo Neruda, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. On Oct. 24 (9:30 p.m.), however, it is the turn of musician Jacopo Andreini / Al Mustaqil in concert; finally, the group Sorrentini / Galli / Lovo / Volpi in Floating Head Lovers will conclude the festival on Oct. 31, also starting at 9:30 p.m.

All events are free admission subject to availability and will be held in compliance with security measures and anti-Covid protocols. Reservations via email scriptafestival@gmail.com are recommended. Scripta Festival is part of the Estate Fiorentina 2020 programming. The project is organized and promoted by Scripta Association. Art in Words, and Brac Bookstore. For info you can link to the Libreria Brac website.

Image: Marta Dell’Angelo, Carichi pendenti (2017)

Art as community, inclusion, critique of power: Florence kicks off Scripta Festival 2020

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.