We interviewed Chiara Bertola who gained substantial experience as art curator at Fondazione Furla in Bologna and Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice and in 2009 entered in office as Art Director of Hangar Bicocca. With her positive and collaborative approach Chiara embodies the crucial spirit to drive the urban regeneration of Bicocca area to the right direction. Her vision is that of promoting “life” in the area and building up a culture of innovation.
Dear Chiara, or better, Dear Director, how did it come to promote contemporary art in the Bicocca area?
Things born and grow in a continuing evolution. The history tells that few years ago in this very location there was a massive production of train engines, then suddenly, with the reorganization of the area it was launched the idea of a museum for the XX century. Next, luckily, the shift to contemporary art and to a less formal institution. Indeed it is far more appealing to take advantage of a place like the Hangar to create an environment where everyone can freely express, a place that can be used as a gym for artists and thinkers in order to experiment their innovative works.
Someone may think that it would have been better to set this center in a different and more central area, but here at Bicocca there’s a great gamble and lot of investments have been done for relevant projects. They here developed the idea of a rational city and I guess that the Hangar is here to deliver that “life” that has been deleted with the urban regeneration. Squared buildings and order is the leit-motiv of Bicocca infrastructure, therefore our mission is to create a sort of disorder. With no disorder, life simply cannot take root.
The Hangar has to be one of the drivers for the future development of the area; we have to collect, support and reinforce the life that has been uprooted by rationalists architects. We are confident that sooner o later people attracted by our vitality will come here and by adding their own vitality will contaminate Bicocca with liveliness.
How to define and describe the Hangar Bicocca? Is it a museum for contemporary art?
This is surely not a museum, the Hangar is an experimental centre, here we experiment the new languages of contemporary states. What we do demonstrates the vast array of languages we use: from pure underground music to the sounds by Phill Niblock or Ludovico Einaudi, lectures and poetry by Tiziano Scarpa, performances taken from “Demons” by Dostoevskij directed by Peter Stein, ballet and dance with Yasmeen Godder, Chris Haring etc.
Different languages, in addition to visual art of course.
Is that easy to establish connection with the territory?
It is indeed difficult, but crucial, to establish relationships with the other key actors involved in the development of this area, and I refer particularly to the Arcimboldi Theatre and to the Bicocca University. We still have to work on this issue, to harmonize our efforts and eventually coordinate some activities. Some “urban emptiness” are surely not helping out: between our location and the University there’s a only 150 m distance but a soon-to-be building site avoids much of the potential communications.
However, it is our firm conviction that we must support local communities and connect deeply with the territory. Recently, we decided to support the work by Stefano Boccalini who is very keen in working with local communities and we now have in the proximity of the Hangar a “Melting Pot”, an area characterized by white columns and intended to serve the local community and all those who need a place to meet. It is nothing but a completely free environment that opens to every possible type of activity; aggregating people should be its role. Somehow it represents a “square”, a place where people spontaneously meet, a place that has been lost with the regeneration of this area.
Is transportation a problem that harms the development of Bicocca and the Hangar? Do you feel too far away from the city centre?
Every 10 minutes there’s a bus that connects us with the railways station directly, it’s a 15 minutes trip. And there’s a subway stop at about 300 meters. But indeed people are convinced that we are far away from the city center and not easy to reach. In most of the cases it is a psychological problem: Italians are not used to exploit aggregating points that are out of the city center. It is something that in London for instance is absolutely normal, but here we’re still deeply shaped by the concept of centripetal polis. However, I’m convinced that if we keep on adding great contents in this location, it will soon begin to be considered a vital and thus central area.
In June we had an inauguration with more than 6 thousand people attending. It was awesome. For every type of event we offer we can enjoy the company of around 500 people. We have to make it clear that Italian and art lovers in general can find here what they cannot find elsewhere. Experimental fashion, visionary art, permanent but temporary towers, creative books and monographs, where can you find all this things elsewhere?
Now that everything has been renovated, the cafeteria’s ready, all has been made cosy, we have a bookshop and a set of activities we are carrying out both inside and outside the Hangar, we are more than ready to host people, to attract people not only from the Bicocca area, but from the city centre too. We have to make it clear that here it is not suburbs, no periphery, we are still a central area.
So, as a curator, what do you think is missing? What would you recommend?
I am not sure what’s still missing, but probably there is a certain lack of a strong political will. We can offer our innovative cultural effort and commitment, but it might be not enough. Sometimes there is need of a broader consensus and coordination. Public institutions such as the municipality have to push for a site-specific cultural policy too.
You host a massive work by Anselm Kiefer which represents seven towers, does this work embody the feeling of the new Bicocca district?
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| Seven Heavenly Places by Kiefer |
The work “Seven Heavenly Places” consists of seven derelict architectures. It is an oxymoron-based setting-up since its inner nature is to represent instability. Although made mostly with cement, the towers strive for an equilibrium that is not easy to find. Metaphorically speaking, it is an allegory of the artist to symbolize the quest for equilibrium and heavenly peace. All can fall down in a minute, but building up is mandatory to achieve a higher spiritual dimension.
All the area here at Bicocca appears to seek for an equilibrium, the hope is that uncertainty and instability won’t last forever. We do have to build up spiritual dimensions and not only buildings to come up with an equilibrium.
Somehow I have a preference for being tottering within an instable architecture than living in the complete safe of a too static architecture such as those you can find at the University of Milan-Bicocca.
That work, as well as other installations, are site-specific, right?
Yes. The concept of site-specific works is essentially what artists are looking for, it is the perfect setting for them. Bicocca and the Hangar are indeed special locations and the space we offer has to be put in a close relation with the artist. Artists can freely make use of our space and use our sites as a primary input for their works. Conditions here are completely different than those they can find in a museum, here there’s a sort of free-falling, the pieces of art can come out in order to take advantage of our space. It can be a huge work such as “The Seven Heavenly Places” by Anselm Kiefer or minimalist like most the art we will present in “Vulnerable Lands”, but in any case it is crucial for this art to be designed in that moment and for that place.
What is the relationship between contemporary art and contemporary architecture?
Oh, there are plenty of links. Nowadays many many artists put architecture at the core of their projects. The space, housing and living, the dimensions of emptiness and fullness are increasingly addressed in contemporary art. Consider for instance Andrea Blum who focused her contribution to architecture, particularly to utopian architecture. Architecture is a place where to experience human relations, where to set life. And contemporary art is much about human relations and life. So that architecture is a crucial reference for innovative artists. On the other hand, architects also take a long hard look at contemporary art. Even in our small world, the political and ethical statement of the incoming “Vulnerable Lands” has been assigned to an architect, to Yona Friedman.
He is a master; actually I can maybe say that he became an artist because architecture was not fully able to appreciate his intuitions.
You mentioned the project “Vulnerable Lands”, what are you referring to?
I’ve decided to make a new theme central, a theme that regards all of us, that closely regards all of us. It’s the theme of vulnerability. The aim is to focus on this concept by referring to it with a positive attitude. Too frequently vulnerability is regarded with negative connotations, conversely we intend to consider vulnerability as a might more than a fragility. It is something we have to deal with, something we have to float through in order to clarify what’s the right path. It something that can offer us some solutions we didn’t think before. The idea is to start up with platforms, actually vulnerable platforms, with reference to different topics in economics, architecture, science, so to evidence each time the vulnerability under different viewpoints and matters. We have to give to vulnerability a new dignity, to put this word in a new light. On paper, we are planning a series of organic expositions, one after the other. All begun, in a vulnerable manner, just sharing ideas with artists and curators, but so far we defined 4 stages, like the 4 moon phases, for the project “Vulnerable Lands”. It will consists in 4 distinct expositions sharing a common overarching perspective. We’ll get start with a selected small group of artists and then we will keep on adding contents and people to end up with an exposition that renews and reshapes frequently. The ambition is to create an exposition that is so organic as to prevent from dying the very first day after inauguration. We want no crystallization, we want it to grow up like a plant in a garden, like a tree or a living being. I can anticipate that the first step of “Vulnerable Lands” is developed together with the architect, and artist, Yona Friedman and according to the ethical statement he defined “real solutions come from the bottom”.
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