The Italian challenge

A recent debate at the Pakjuis De Zwijger in Amsterdam demonstrated that, although efficient Dutch pragmatism and Italian political disenchantment seem to confirm the national stereotypes, the porosity of the creative networks compared with the political and bureaucratic systems debunks this dichotomy.

As an Italian expat in Amsterdam, I am quite familiar with Italian and Dutch stereotypes. The collective imagination sees the Netherlands are rich but somewhat lacking in pathos, whereas the Italian boot is culturally active but held back by a worrying tendency to feel sorry for itself. Eventually you learn to take the stereotypes for just that, of course, but we are less frequently able to see ways to bring the best of two worlds with different pros together.

La sfida italiana — Crimson Architecture Historians illustrated the evolution of the link between food and power at Rome’s MAXXI, with a 20-metre “allegorical panorama” hand-drawn on the museum’s walls

As part of its six-month Europe by People: The Future of Everyday Living programme, the Pakhuis De Zwijger in Amsterdam has tried to do precisely that, organising a fascinating evening of exchanges between the two countries centred on four urbanistic projects, all supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Rome and the Dutch Creative Industries Fund. After a brief introduction by moderator Natasja van den Berg, international cultural relations expert Bas Ernst explained the importance of cooperation between Italy and Holland. They see Italy as their fifth biggest export market and a strategic hub for industries such as fashion and design. On its part, Italy greatly appreciates Dutch experience and know-how. Ernst stressed the huge vitality of Italy’s creative industries and spoke of the joint challenge of fulfilling a larger number of projects, often blocked or slowed down by lack of funds or red tape. Martijn van der Mark, head of subsidies at the Creative Industries Fund, reiterated that the creative industries are, by their very nature, international and how working abroad brings a return on investment, even simply in terms of acquired knowledge.

Knowledge – although we should perhaps say awareness – was indeed the focus of the first project presented, “The Granary. Food Security, Cities and Architecture.” As illustrated by Wouter Vanstiphout of Crimson Architecture Historians, food has historically been linked to power and starting from architecture. From the Incas to the Prussians, the granary was a monumental construction, an icon of the city. Today, structures such as the Markthal in Rotterdam and Italy’s own Eataly epitomise the consumer relationship with food, emptied of its political potential. Vanstiphout and his office illustrated this evolution in a monumental installation at Rome’s MAXXI, a 20-metre “allegorical panorama” hand-drawn on the museum’s walls for the “FOOD dal cucchiaio al mondo” exhibition.

Crimson’s work with the MAXXI focuses on international issues and travels on intellectual lines (in which – as Vanstiphout pointed out in the final discussion – Italy has very high standards, countered by sometimes unrealistic fulfilment timeframes) but the second project illustrated at the Pakhuis has very concrete and local roots. Conceived by UNLAB and presented as an “urban workshop”, Atelier Taranto features a number of initiatives that rethink the infrastructure of this city in Puglia, one of the most polluted in Europe but also a major port. They picked out several of the city’s urbanistic factors based on social, economic and cultural importance, and suggested specific ways to improve them: the sustainable reintegration of farms; the creation of public spaces on rooftops in the old city, now a ghetto; turning the park near the Ilva factory into a remembrance park; and the installation of photovoltaic panels in the port to exploit the area as an energy resource. Italian-Dutch cooperation was particularly close between UNLAB and Taranto; founded by Andreas Faoro and Francesca Rizzetto, it is based in Rotterdam and coordinates a network of eight architecture, planning and landscape offices, as well as public and private organisations active in Italy and Holland. More specifically, Faoro stresses that the significance of the project lay in its starting to work with the port authorities from a cultural perspective and introducing the local context to the Dutch vocabulary of “visionary pragmatism”.

Gianpiero Venturini (curator of the cultural association “New Generations”) and Carlo Venegoni (architect) also cite the importance of an international language. For New Farms for EXPO, a project to reactivate the farms around Milan, they held a workshop with three core strategies: New Economies, New Metabolism (a term much in vogue in Holland, as Venturini pointed out) and New Branding and Storytelling. The workshop was at the Cascina Corte San Giacomo and the Architects Association, in the former case engaging a group of international students and, in the latter, experts in reactivation and urban metabolisms. The project culminated with the curators publishing Re-Act: Tools for Urban Re-Activation, an anthology of theme projects in various parts of the world and another indication of its international outlook.

The last project, Il Mercato al Centro, also centred on the role played by food in cities and on the reactivation of spaces. Stemming from cooperation between Eutropian, TSPOON and TUTUR, it was a talk that brought communication experts working in Holland (Francesca Miazzo, Pinar Balat and Paul de Graaf) and the city of Rome together. As explained by Levente Polyak at the Pakhuis, the aim was to address the problem of the capital’s unrented properties. The programme included visits to Rome markets and cooperatives, lectures and discussions on the geography of food in the city, the short food chain and urban agriculture. Again, the event pooled the example of foreign projects (e.g. the redesign of the Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam) with local experiences, encouraging an exchange of know-how exploited in situ, starting from dialogues but also with hands-on labour.

During the panel talk that followed the presentations Polyak was the first to answer when the moderator asked about the benefits of international cooperation. Effectively confirming the previously expressed idea of “visionary pragmatism”, the Hungarian urban planner said that working with the Dutch enables them to think big, something instinctively downscaled by the Italians. This may seem more of an advantage for those actually on the receiving end but Wouter Vanstiphout added that, from a Dutch professional standpoint, it can be easier to obtain funds for a project abroad. Holland’s interest in promoting operations abroad was also the subject of discussion during the Q&A, when someone asked how much business relations between Holland and Italy impact on fund allocation. In Ernst’s view, it is an investment opportunity with returns in terms of know-how and the completion of projects that would otherwise remain on paper. Vanstiphout argued, on the other hand, that the link between economic policies and cultural exchange is stronger than before and that, for this very reason, culture can serve open a dialogue and exchanges with projects of another kind (a concept confirmed by UNLAB).

Although, efficient Dutch pragmatism and Italian political disenchantment seem to confirm the national stereotypes, the porosity of the creative networks compared with the political and bureaucratic systems debunks this dichotomy. More than a preliminary to future change, it seems the portrait of an already thriving international and intercultural reality.

The Italian challenge

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