Naples, Italy
Mission Title: Underground - Art in the Metronapoli
Mission By: Alessandro Pasquarelli,
Mission Finished on Date: 26-05-2008
SCRIPT
- Use the underground yourself, see how often does it pass, where does it take you.
- Observe the people on the train.
- Check out Dante and Salvator Rosa or other “Art Stations” both on the inside and on the outside. How does it feel where art pops out of the underground and into the city?
- Record people's interaction (if any) with the pieces and ask a few passerbys (if they’re not running to catch the train) how the art effects their experience of the subway and the city.
- Explore how these aesthetic interventions in every day life change people’s experiences with the city.
TRAVEL BAG
Can underground spaces create new urban identities?
Italian officials are not often known for their foresight, especially in regards to contemporary art. Complaints abound about the death of public support in Italy for contemporary art projects, but the Metronapoli had a rare moment of insight with the Neapolitan subway. Besides the lines being plentiful and easy to use, the city commissioned several of the underground stations to be designed by significant architects like Gae Aulenti and Alessandro Mendini, and for those stations to become contemporary art galleries.
Every station and sometimes every turn brings about an astonishing new experience by some of the most innovative and interesting artists in Italy and the world. American artist Joseph Kosuth created an installation with a neon quote from Dante Alighieri's Convivio, Michelangelo Pistoletto exhibits Intermediterraneo, a painting on a methylacrylate mirror and sculptor Jannis Kounnelis nailed long rows of shoes to the walls with metal bars. A transitory non-space has been transformed by the intervention of contemporary art.
Mission Report
Nea(METRO)polis
When we arrive in Napoli is raining, but inside the Mini Clubman we enjoy the drops falling on the hood and the sun which is popping out through the clouds. As far as we get close to the sea, the city presents itself as we know it, but this time we're not willing to explore the Naples of colored districts and unique landscapes.
We're about to dive into the underground city, in a trip as colored as expressive through the art stations of Naples' underground. The essential character to this mission is Stefano from MetroNapoli, who opens us any possible gate and allows us to shoot everything, even from a train's control room.
We start from Piazza Dante, a station designed by the famous Gae Aulenti, and we go along the Line 1 stopping at every station, observing and catching on tape every piece of art, every hall, every quay and escalators; we plunge completely in what we like to define a "compulsory museum".
At "Quattro giornate" and "Vanvitelli" stations we meet some citizens who let us discover that Neapolitan people love that art breaks through their daily life, and they don't just enjoy their view, they're also interested in knowing better their meaning and their authors.
Moreover, people we talk to think that art stations give to the city a new identity, or better: they allow Naples to take back its peculiar historical identity as a sensitive city toward art and culture in general.
This one has been our impression as well, we were really satisfied about stations' efficiency and cleanness, which is rare in other cities' underground.
Alessandro Pasquarelli
