Massa and the 105 fountains project

by Federico Giannini (Instagram: @federicogiannini1), published on 27/03/2013
Categories: News Focus / Disclaimer

It has been talked about in Massa for a while (i.e., since last summer): we too felt the need to say something about it, but we refrained from doing so because it seemed to be one of the many “summer ideas” so common in our parts, ideas that usually do not find concrete outlets and are resolved with a couple of articles in the local newspapers and some discussion at the bar. But now that the city council has approved, moreover unanimously, the Massa City of 105^Fountains1 project, the matter seems to have taken on serious intentions. For those who may have missed something, the project involves the construction of as many as 105 (one hundred and five!) fountains located throughout the territory of Massa, from the coast to the upstream hamlets, and these fountains are to reproduce as many famous monuments of the ^world2.

An idea described as "revolutionary^"3 when it was launched. To tell the truth, it is nothing new or innovative: for example, in Viserba, a hamlet of Rimini, there is a very famous and very nice park, Italia in miniatura, where many Italian monuments are reproduced to scale (or perhaps the “revolutionary” character of the idea is because this time the reproductions are made on a worldwide basis?). The difference is that in Viserba the scale monuments are located in a special park, in Massa you want to scatter them all over the city. How nice. In the more or less near future, we could then have the Pyramids of Giza in Piazza Betti, the White House at the Quercioli, theArch of Constantine on the castle slope, the Eiffel Tower in the middle of some traffic circle (perhaps at the one in Via Marina Vecchia where a few years ago the statue of St. Francis, transformed into a traffic policeman for the occasion, was placed), and, why not, even St. Peter’s Basilica in front of the Ducal Palace, next to the obelisk.

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According to the intentions of the proposal’s drafter, city councilor Riccardo Della Pina, the project should pose as a "diffuse museum^"4 (a term that has become particularly fashionable in recent times). It would be beyond interesting to know what kind of “museum culture” should be the one spread by such a project. We could very trivially define a museum as a place where artistic, historical, scientific, literary testimonies are collected, which should have the goal of making these testimonies known to citizens, educating them through its collections, spreading knowledge and through these operations developing critical sense and civic consciousness. But also promote research and studies. Simplifying, we could turn to the definition of “museum” that we find in Paragraph 2 of Article 101 of the Cultural Heritage and^Landscape Code, 5 which identifies a museum as a “permanent structure that acquires, preserves, orders and exhibits cultural goods for purposes of education and study.” Nothing to do then with the “105 fountains” route since it seems to me difficult to apply the concept of “cultural heritage” to a series of reproductions of monuments. No one would dream, just to continue with the example given a moment ago, of considering the monuments ofItaly in miniature as cultural goods. Such an operation might be more akin to an edutainment project, i.e., entertainment with popular or awareness-raising purposes.

It is also difficult to think of considering the “105 fountains” as a monumental complex, defined in the same paragraph as a “whole formed by a plurality of buildings built even in different eras, which over time have acquired, as a whole, an autonomous artistic, historical or ethno-anthropological relevance.” And here one of the basic requirements, namely “time,” would already be missing, since these would be 105 small monuments (or rather, small reproductions of monuments) created ex novo, moreover as a “marketing operation,” as the creator of the project himself claims. Yes, because when Massa has these fountains, it will become a major attraction for tourists from all over the world, with the city going “on tourist brochures all over the world, helping to create wealth and jobs.” It is not quite clear why a Russian tourist would come to Massa to see a reproduction of the Kremlin or an American tourist to admire the Golden Gate outside the toll booth on the highway (work is going on these days for a new traffic circle right at the exit of the A12 toll booth, perhaps it can be a candidate to host one of the 105 fountains) instead of admiring, for example, the Pinturicchio fresco preserved in the Duomo (and not a cheap fresco either: it is a fragment of the original decoration of the Cybo chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, we will also talk about it in the next episode of the podcast), or the works of Bernardino del Castelletto in the Diocesan Museum, or to visit the beautiful Malaspina castle with many of its rooms that still preserve the decorations of the time in which they were made and that represents a very notable testimony to our past, or the rooms of the Ducal Palace, or even, very simply, to have a couple of days at the beach in total relaxation spending less than to book in nearby Forte dei Marmi with the advantage of still being able to spend evenings in Versilia.

The 5 Star Movement has criticized the project (and for once we agree with them), calling it a "collective hallucination.^"6 We would like to know on what cultural basis the 105 fountains project rests: Massa is a city that was the capital of a duchy, that has on its territory remarkable historical testimonies of its illustrious past, often unknown (how many people from Massa know that in the Duomo there is a fresco by Pinturicchio, how many have seen the works of Bernardino del Castelletto? It would be interesting to do a survey) and in some cases left in a state of total abandonment (a few months ago on our website we talked about Villa Massoni, which lies in the most advanced degradation among the indifference of most). So why invest time and resources on a multi-year project when you could instead enhance and publicize what you already have? What is the point of scattering reproductions of world monuments over the municipal territory when not even the people of Massa themselves know about the valuable works preserved at the Diocesan Museum or when Villa Massoni is falling apart? Massa, as already mentioned, is a city rich in historical and artistic evidence: perhaps it would be better to work to spread the image of Massa as that of a city with an illustrious ducal past, which had an enlightened court, by creating ad hoc itineraries in the city, organizing shows and events with the aim of enhancing the historical-artistic heritage, and flanking the traditional image of Massa as a seaside resort with that of a city of art.

Doubts are also raised about the way such fountains are made: in fact, competitions would be held by the municipal administration among art schools having as a prize the placement of the fountain-reproduction in this ^route7. Again, it is not clear how these competitions are to be held, who is to judge the reproductions, how the works are to reach Massa for evaluation, and at whose expense: we really do not think that it can be true that the project will be “at zero cost,” because in any case organizing a competition entails costs (although Councilman Della Pina already knows where to find them: private patrons!) and above all maintaining not one, not two, not three, but as many as one hundred and five Apuan marble fountains in good condition entails other considerable costs. By the way: where has one ever seen an artistic competition for the best reproduction of a monument? The creativity and genius of the artist would be totally mortified. And tourists would perhaps come to wonder what happened to the proverbial Italian genius if the most we know how to offer these days is a set of copies of monuments.

We therefore address two questions to all those in the city council who approved the project: two questions that no one has asked yet but which should have been essential for a discussion before approval. The first: on what cultural basis should the 105 fountains project be based. The second: how does the council plan to attract tourist attendance through a project that has nothing to do with the historical memory of the city of Massa. And having made these considerations, shouldn’t the council ask itself whether it is better to channel its energies into projects to enhance and popularize Massa’s artistic heritage and historical records?

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Notes

1. Alessandro Maggiani, Approved the “Massa city of 105 fountains” project, from hereMassa.it, March 13, 2013. ↑

2. Claudio Figaia, Operation 105 fountains: "This is how Massa will be famous," from Il Tirreno, June 24, 2012. ↑

3. See article in footnote 2. ↑

4. See article in footnote 2. ↑

5. At this link the text of the Code. ↑

6. The 5 Star Movement against the 105 fountains project, from ANews 24, March 21, 2013. ↑

7. See article in footnote 2. ↑

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