Disobbedienti
A project by Big Hope: Miklós Erhardt &
Dominic Hislop.
Project Description:
The
exhibition is the reconstruction of some fragments of a specific
environment and a specific context, in the 'neutral' environment
and context of a gallery. The specific context is that of Corso
Brescia 14, Torino, Italy, the office and social centre run by the
Senza Frontiere Cooperative. This is the location of weekly meetings
by the Torino Disobbedient'. Disobbedienti are a nationwide network
of leftist political activists with a similar philosophy towards
protest i.e. that of provokative but peaceful disobedience.
In the gallery, a creative work in the traditional sense of the
term was not produced, but rather some of the elements e.g. wall
decorations, posters, lighting, leaflet shelves, video projector
stand, of this quite specific environment were selected, photographed,
then reproduced in the gallery. The atmosphere evoked was the one
of an activists' club. Each element which was reproduced, had its
original reference image exhibited next to it, in the form of a
photograph. Other elements of the exhibition included textual information
and short video clips on a monitor which illustrate some of the
activities of the group. On the opening night, a beamer projected
one of the meetings of the group in the same space that is reproduced
in the gallery. Many of the fragments reproduced can be seen in
the background.
At this meeting, on 12th September, they were planning for going
to Treviso the following Sunday (15th September) for a demo in support
of 15 migrant families who had occupied a disused public building
for two years. The local council decided to evict them and destroy
the building, so the families were homeless and staying outside
the town's prominent cathedral as a protest. The other topic was
about the planning of a large national demonstration to be held
in Torino against the immigrant detention centre at Corso Brunellesci.
As it has a big wall around it and they couldn't get in - they were
planning to paint the wall, as a metaphor - in the way the Berlin
wall was painted - as a first step towards the wall being destroyed.
![](pics/int3_sm.jpg)
Interview
in Torino
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![](pics/int-bud_sm.jpg)
Interview
in Budapest |
The video also
includes an interview with some of the group's members. In it, they
speak about the factors that influence their position, about their
connections to other groups nationally and worldvide, the directions
and purposes of their activity. During the exhibition, in the environement
of this reconstructed Disobbedienti meeting space, we organisied
a meeting of leading Hungarian activists that were planning to go
to the European Social Forum in Florence and posed them the same
questions, recorded their responses and plan to translate and play
to the Torino Disobbedienti back in their original environment.
The social purpose of the exhibition was to make connections, create
a dialogue and give information through presenting, in the relatively
apolitical Hungarian art and social scene, a concrete example of
the activity of one of the players that make up Italy's lively array
of contemporary social movements.
The clips on the monitor were edited and distributed by the Torino
Disobbedienti.
1. 2002. April 16th., 'Sciopero Genralizzato' (General Strike),
Torino demo
2. 2002. April 25th., 'Liberazione' (against the refugee detention
centre at Corso Brunellesci), Torino demo
3. 2002. Mayday., 'Reclaim your Money' (against the proposed ammendment
to article 18 of the workers statute), Torino demo
4. 2002. June 22nd., 'Adotta 1 colf' ("Adopt a domestic worker"),
Torino demo
Acknowledgements:
Thanks
to everybody in the Torino Disobbedienti for the possibility to
use the results of their work, particularly Alessandro, Elio, Ornella
& Sylvia. Thanks to Andrea Nemeth, Laszlo Haffner, Zoltan Kiss,
Peter Hecker and Tracey for their help during the realisation of
the project in Budapest.
Supported by: FKE-Intermedia, BBS, Karakter Studio, Imola Lang,
Gabriella Nagy.
Contact:
bighope [at] bighope [dot] hu
Links:
A Torino Disobbedienti
site no longer exists but this one has some links to current Italian
political / social activism:
http://www.lacaverna.it
The Manamana site has info and links to current Hungarian political
/ social activism:
http://www.c3.hu/~ligal/ManamanaFO.htm
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