The Minister of Culture: museums must be innovated, the work of “external” directors is excellent. From Monday 11 April the new book “Don’t you eat with culture?” (The ship of Theseus)
Dario Franceschini, Minister of Culture, will publish his book on Monday 11 April Can’t you eat with culture? (The ship of Theseus). Why use such a famous expression, denied several times by former minister Giulio Tremonti?
“That sentence, whether it was pronounced or not, has become the symbol of a long season of cuts to culture: too many thought it was not a resource. When I first went to the Quirinale to swear the oath as minister, I said instead that they had entrusted me with the most important economic department. Those who lived in culture knew this, but it was necessary to convince the political decision-makers … ».
Did he succeed?
“Governments and political seasons change. But it will be impossible to go back. Since 2013, economic support for the sector has continuously grown. And the pandemic, with the closure of cinemas, museums, theaters, music halls, has shown how much culture is both an economic value and social cohesion ».
The Uffizi, with 1.7 million visitors, was the most visited museum in 2021. Many young people: will we have to surrender to the idea that an influencer like Chiara Ferragni can change the rankings of Italian museums?
«Now in Florence the Uffizi Galleries include Palazzo Pitti, Boboli, the Vasari Corridor. Then an influencer like Chiara Ferragni should be thanked for the message she sent. Innovation relies on many communication vehicles. And she explains how younger audiences look for an immersive experience in museums: welcoming places, technologies, spaces for reading, for eating, workshops for children. So it is in the most advanced countries and so it is becoming in Italy ».
Instead in Rome the Colosseum has to deal with the clandestine skip-the-line and with the great dirt on the square …
«There is an intersection of competences not of the Archaeological Park: public order, waste collection. In addition there is the construction site of the Metro. The confrontation with Roberto Gualtieri’s new Capitoline junta has restarted, there is a table now chaired by Walter Tocci. The Colosseum can no longer be, even if only half of it now, a median. It is necessary to pedestrianize and redevelop the entire area, rethink it in the context of the great Project Fori ».
You praise the work of foreign and Italian museum directors. However, there are those who say that their extraneousness to the ministerial machinery is a problem for the functioning of museums, not an advantage.
«Old controversy daughter of a completely local provincialism. The “external” directors, foreign and Italian, chosen in international competitions, have done and are still doing an excellent job. They were asked not to manage well-established museums but to face a challenge: managerial autonomy, budget and scientific choices, create bookshops, cafeterias. The results are excellent ».
In the book reappears a Matteo Renzi who, as mayor of Florence, defines the Superintendent as “one of the ugliest words in the vocabulary of the bureaucracy”. You say that word is “beautiful”. Because?
«It is enough to see what happened to the landscapes, the coasts, the historic centers, the cultural heritages of many countries without a figure similar to the Superintendent and without our system of constraints. Of course, there is controversy when a company, a private individual, a municipality see a project blocked by a Superintendency. But at stake there is a necessary verification of protection. It can also happen that a single Superintendent does badly, such as a doctor or a judge. But this does not mean that hospitals or courts are closed ».
The ecological transition, and now the urgency of resorting to alternative energy sources to Russian gas, are pushing towards wind turbines and solar panels. How to reconcile this need with the protection of so many landscapes?
«The most foolish approach is to contrast two needs that can and must be reconciled. We have adopted rules for simplification in many procedures. The emergency forces us to temporarily review many choices, such as coal. Also remember that those structures are removable. The balance can be found: the protection of the landscape is not only a constitutional duty but also an economic advantage linked to tourism. And if the rules do not go well, there is the Parliament that can change them ».
Will we go back to theaters or will we only stream movies at home?
«The intersection between the fear of crowded places with the pandemic and the explosion of platforms has changed a world. The collective experience in a room remains irreplaceable and the offer must be renewed. The rooms must change offering also spaces to use a computer, to read, to eat and drink together, even changing schedules. Those who have already made this choice are overcoming the crisis ».
The theater, as you say in the book, is better …
“Because the experience is unrepeatable elsewhere. Then the public is fond, as happens with strong readers. The return to the theater shows that the fear of closed places can be overcome, perhaps thanks to a mask ».
You break a lance in favor of the inclusion of contemporary architecture even in the fabrics of historic centers. Because?
«Our cities, our buildings, our churches are the result of a continuous urban stratification, from the Roman Empire to the Renaissance, to the Baroque up to the second post-war period when everything stopped in the name of protection. But there are many urban gaps to be filled even in the historic centers. And with intelligence, with the quality of the great designers, we can intervene: the Italian urban history can and must continue. For example, Studio Chipperfield’s restoration work on the newly inaugurated Procuratie Vecchie in Venice is simply extraordinary ».
And how do you close the reading gap between the North and the South?
“School, school, school. And then with testimonials who push people to read on TV and on social media, to live an experience of slowness in a world that is too fast ».
The book ends like this: «A new time opens up before us, in which to redefine lifestyles, priorities, strategies. Overcoming tragedies does not automatically trigger a paradigm shift ». It will depend on us, she concludes.
“The pandemic has led to the discovery of slowness, loneliness, isolation and even reading. I expect a growth in cultural consumption, however renewed and more aware: less frenzy, fewer frantic races. More time to understand and reflect ».
The appointments. Sunday 10 April on Raitre, Monday 11 in Milan
The new book by Dario Franceschini is released on Monday 11 April in bookstores, Can’t you eat with culture? (The ship of Theseus), which wants to be “both a manifesto of ideas and a travel diary, a live story of a season lived in the heart of the ministry that presides over beauty”. Already on Sunday 10 April, Franceschini will talk about it on television, hosted by Fabio Fazio on Raitre a What’s the weather like. Tomorrow, Monday 11, the minister will present the volume in Milan at a meeting organized by the Corriere della Sera Foundation (Sala Buzzati, via Balzan 3, 6 pm; booking on fondazionecorriere.it): the mayor Giuseppe Sala, Lorenzo Casini and Evelina Christillin will speak with the author, will introduce Piergaetano Marchetti, president of the Foundation, and will coordinate Marianna Aprile (the meeting will be streamed on time.news). On Wednesday 20 April, instead, an appointment in Rome, at the Feltrinelli bookshop in the Galleria Colonna, again at 6 pm: the Capitoline mayor Roberto Gualtieri, Monica Maggioni and Stefano Massini will speak with Franceschini, and Laura Larcan will coordinate.
The author
Dario Franceschini (Ferrara, 1958) has been Minister of Culture since 5 September 2019; between 2014 and 2018 he had been Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities and for Tourism, and between 2013 and 2014 Minister for relations with Parliament. In 2009 he was secretary of the Democratic Party. Franceschini is the author of several fiction titles: for Bompiani In the veins that silver water (2006), The sudden madness of Ignazio Rando (2007), All over again (2011), Intangible crafts by Sebastiano Delgado (2013) and for La nave di Teseo Unadorned and other stories (2017). Two previous non-fiction volumes: The Popular Party in Ferrara. Catholics, socialists and fascists in the land of Grosoli and Don Minzoni (Clueb, 1985) and In 10 words. Challenging the Right on values (Bompiani, 2009)
April 9, 2022 (change April 9, 2022 | 20:56)
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