Giuseppe De Mattia
Pare che tutte le vie fosse “Via del Mare”
07/09/2023
Giuseppe De Mattia
Pare che tutte le vie fosse “Via del Mare”
07/09/2023
Giuseppe De Mattia
Pare che tutte le vie fossero “Via del Mare”
July 9, 2023, 7:00 PM by studioconcreto
In continuity with “Performance of Word between gesture and architecture” – the investigation by studioconcreto on the relationship between body and architecture through the actions of artists who place words at the center of their practice – on July 9, at 7:00 PM, the new phase of the research on the INA-Casa district of Via del Mare, where studioconcreto has been operating since 2018, will be presented to the public.
“It seems that all the streets were ‘Via del Mare'” is the title of the first cycle of presentation, taken from a phrase excerpted from the new series of “Gossip” by Giuseppe De Mattia (Bari, 1980) dedicated to the INA-Casa of Via del Mare. For the occasion, these will be posted on the bricked-up windows of the building on Via Panareo, “Centro Sociale, Case per Lavoratori in Lecce – Via del Mare,” in the form of posters. On the same day, the launch of an open workshop on collecting the historical memory of the district, established in the early 1950s, located just “after the Monks,” along the axis leading to the sea and possessing the peculiarity of being the first INA-Casa housing development approved by the Municipal Building Commission of the City of Lecce, will be inaugurated. The research aims to focus on certain elements of this modern architectural heritage which, in step with social changes, has undergone profound transformations in relation to foundational principles such as the importance of distribution, the integration of housing and services, and the centrality of public space. The INA-Casa district on Via del Mare, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, has gradually been absorbed into the modern center of the city, losing some of its unique characteristics like the prevalence of urban greenery, which has given way to the ever more pressing need for parking areas and meeting places that form the basis of any citizenship process. This is the case of the “Centro Sociale, Case per Lavoratori in Lecce – Via del Mare,” which has been in a state of abandonment for over twenty years. As can be gleaned from reports of the time, the Social Center was created with the intention of “promoting the progressive formation of bonds of commonality and solidarity.” The significance of this community architecture is currently dormant but re-emerges every time the memory of the old residents is evoked or reflection on its abandonment occurs with the new residents: it triggers interest, curiosity, and facilitates intergenerational dialogue among the inhabitants.
The importance that the “Centro Sociale, Case per Lavoratori in Lecce – Via del Mare” still holds today has guided the choice to use architecture as a device for an artistic intervention capable of returning some of the narratives collected about the life that flowed in the houses and streets of the district. This was made possible thanks to the collaboration with the artist Giuseppe De Mattia, who explores the relationship between memory, archive, and contemporaneity. For the “Centro Sociale, Case per Lavoratori in Lecce – Via del Mare,” the artist has created two site-specific cycles of “Gossip,” short stories fixed in time thanks to rudimentary graphics, and which, opening up to the dimension of intimate and informal communication, resonate like an infinite echo. On this occasion, the author will enact eight of the sixteen narratives of posters that will cover, in two different moments (July and September), the eight bricked-up windows of the Social Center with the aim of giving voice to a chorus of intentions: that of seeing the building in question and the neighborhood relive with the same centrality they had in the past, recovering the aesthetic and social value of this frayed place and its community.
Remaining faithful to the founding principles of the INA-Casa plan and in dialogue with all stakeholders, including the indispensable collaboration with the Department of Urban Policies of the Municipality of Lecce and ARCA (Regional Agency for Housing and Habitat) Sud Salento, the intention is to open a long-term discussion on the enhancement of this modern heritage of the City, on its preservation, and on the possible integration of new elements capable of embodying environmental, social, and economic sustainability.