Chinatown Mobile Cinema

Arte in Sarpi, 4th-18th May, 2013, Milan.

The case of Chinatown fully represents the opening of the barriers and the slow colonization and contamination of other cultures that integrate and blend themselves with the urban fabric, bringing a new interpretation of it and helping to give a new shape. This phenomenon, although born long before the word globalization purchased the current meaning, symbolizes perhaps its greatest manifestation and potential. The process leading to these transformations spreads over a long period of time, and it sees both the spatial and the socio-cultural alteration of the integration background. Chinatown proves to be very versatile, settling down in very different urban contests, being able to blend with the historic European city, the modern American or Asian metropolis. A picturesque architecture halfway between fiction and reality plays with motifs of traditional Chinese architecture and begins to mix with the background by altering their appearance. It’s interesting to verify how Chinese spontaneous colonies, settled all over the world, feel still connected to their traditional architecture, although in a fetish-kitsch Disneyan way, while China has almost completely destroyed the historic fabric of its cities opening up to stupid trendy settlement following Western-style, such as Mc Donald. About Paolo Sarpi’s case, still, a work in progress that has already led to violent scenes between cultures, the municipality has failed to govern, interpret, and use this occasion as a resource, instead of placing itself as an obstacle. The project is inspired by the myriad of trolleys and bikes that are used by the Chinese community in the Paolo Sarpi zone; facilities that have over the years turned into a symbol of disputes between Italian residents and Chinese ones. What if these trolleys were mobile equipment useful for the transformation of the open space into a melting pot between the two different cultures? For the two weeks of Art in Sarpi, residents will have the chance to participate in the construction of the Chinatown Mobile Cinema trolley and be spectators of the program of four projections of Chinese and Italian subtitled masterpiece movies. We firmly believe that the meeting and mingling of the two cultures may arise excellent potential for the area and will disappear gradually the atmosphere of crashes that you breathe walking around the neighborhood.

 

With the technical support of BRIChECO
Curated by Rossella Farinotti for Arte in Sarpi
Ph. Parasite 2.0 and Luca Condorelli