co+re dérive II ...

glimpses into the places and records ... MILAN(o)

from Como, co+re.parthership exercise has moved to Milano; as in the case of co+re dérive I ... the upload had to be fast, not to allow (much of) my own reflection (and bias), but that proved to be impossible; this is not an influencer’s blog; sometimes a verdict - summary - hypothesis comes up early ; the aim of dérive is always to open up (the city, and us towards the city); an (informed) hunch matters … then the questions come; walking towards the carpark I jotted down how Milan is “a constipated city”; “constipated” … how?

facing the harsh reality (and, here I do not present the harshest of realities, but only several glimpses from the very centre of Milano); traffic, what public needs, what public deserves, what public has the right to demand …; let’s start with a tram stop (I love a sense of humour which the father on my snapshot had there)

think of what a city (this city, any city, should be), think the right to the city, urbanity …

same space, Galleria: ABOVE - view up, BELOW eye-level; literally a view down! instant gratification with a dose of (foreign, in a number of ways) “culture”

then … back to motorbikes (I did my best not to take photos of cars)

how not to come up with fast verdicts in situations as blatant, as sad as the terrible neglect of the monument to Sandro Pertini (Toto Cutugno’s partigiano come presidente), designed by Aldo Rossi is?! , the place where the architect made stone, the marmo di candoglia (the same material as in Duomo), catch the sun’s rays and shine … now, that is a motorbike parking; the fountain is dry, the auditorium facing the former piazza (now, of course, a restaurant) - all but inaccessible

cities (can) talk; we should listen; here Milano testifies how ideology sneaks in, glorifies or neglects; reshapes urban practices, in this case by redefining nothing less than what the term culture means … in a glamorous City of Culture

of course … there are escapes, one can take a tram and escape even to - Japan (SANAA’s Bocconi University Campus) where everything is, just as in Japan, meticulously designed and maintained (and here I indulge myself with - photos only)

photos and reflections