- Henri Lefebvre, “The production of space” : Space is not something that we can take for granted, it is something that is produced. Space is produced by us as society.
- through the definition of the Public we define a definition of visible/invisible.
- In Padova, a city in north Italy closed to Venice, there are some places where we always had traditional practices that are not allowed anymore because of the new Major’s laws, these places became for him spaces of power, spaces where to show his power. The concept of decorum and decency are his biggest concern, and he addresses them in a really propagandistic way. Therefore his politics became the politics of what is allowed to be seen downtown and what is not, forcing some new laws to redefine what is the public space.
- For decades and especially in the last 20years, the main meeting point for the youngsters and University students, was a square called Piazza delle Erbe. The common practice in the square was to gather there and bring something to drink, a can of beer or a bottle of wine. The new major has forbidden to drink alcohol in the public spaces and outside the bar, as a consequence now people do not gather anymore in this square, and it became empty except for drug dealers and the fruit and vegetable market.
- Padova always had the tradition to celebrate the new graduates with a public ritual called “Papiro”. Papiro is a piece of paper that has to be attached on the wall of the University central building -Palazzo del Bò-, where are written all the bad adventures of the graduate during his studies. The graduate has to read it for all the citizens and where the audience ask him/her, drink a sip of wine from a bottle. It is a way for the graduate to say goodbye to the city and enter in a new step of his/her life.
This is not possible anymore because the place of the traditions -Palazzo del Bò- is in front of the space of the decorum, the Town hall. I discovered it only when the sister of my friend during her graduation (winter 2015) started to read her Papiro and a police officer stopped her, because she has a bottle of wine in her hand. This fact was the trigger for my action.
I asked to friends that used to gather at Piazza delle erbe, new graduates and old graduates, to make an action for me. To build a space with their bodies, to create in the downtown public space, a new social public space, an open space where inside, the Major’s laws does not work. We gathered in the space between Palazzo del Bo and the Town Hall -first point of tension- and all the participants brought with them a bottle of wine. Then they made a square and facing the inside of the square, they drunk a sip of wine at the same time and I took a picture. We walked then to the other tension point, Piazza delle erbe and repeated the action.
I wanted to create even if only for few seconds, this new public space through the action of the participants as symbol. (The action had to be ephemeral otherwise we would have had problems with the police).