«The Strait Biennial is a time, a meeting, a challenge. And it is a need.” Thus, architect Alfonso Femia marks the crescendo of opportunities linked to this ambitious cultural project for the ability to cast a clear gaze and vision on the future, on an international scale. Creator of the Strait Biennial and scientific director together with Annalisa Metta and Salima Naji of this third edition, Femia recalls its international soul «as a place of reflection and research. But, at the same time – he points out – the desire is increasingly to take root in the territory in the logic that it belongs to those who live in it and are committed to its development. We work for a concrete and real laboratory thanks also to the institutional work that we carry out with ANCE, University, Order of Architects, Municipality, Metropolitan City”.
At the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio the presentation of the event whose theme is «Mutations», scheduled from 18 September to 13 December (the debates, on the Calabrian side, will take place in the Forte Batteria Siacci; at the National Archaeological Museum in coordination with the director Fabrizio Sudano; at Villa Genoese).
«A place of meeting and thought that takes place between two cities and two regions united by the sea and history: Reggio Calabria and Messina», underline the acting mayor of the Metropolitan City Carmelo Versace and Domenico Battaglia, acting mayor. of Reggio. «For the third time, Forte Batteria Siacci is the pivot of this splendid and innovative cultural journey», remarks Rocco Alessandro Repaci, mayor of Campo Calabro. Therefore, rethink the relationship between man, nature and city to reflect – as the theme suggests – on what is really happening before our eyes.
«The challenge is for the territory but also with the territory», suggests Massimo Lauria, vice-rector of the Mediterranean University. New ways of living, of moving, of sharing. «We claim – states the president of the Order of Architects Santina Dattola – the task of interpreting changes, transforming them into new opportunities. This year our Order will be even more active. We will run workshops with schools, because it is the new generations who are the first to perceive the changes of the present. And we will launch a call aimed at professionals in our city to collect ideas and proposals capable of dialogue with the themes of the Biennale and enhance the design richness of our territory. The Biennale is an opportunity for growth, an act of responsibility and a bridge between generations.”
And there is also a crossroads. Michele Laganà, president of Ance Reggio Calabria, outlines it: «On the one hand, settlement dispersion, land consumption, neighborhoods without services. On the other, the potential to integrate nature and infrastructure, home and work, culture and technology.”
Therefore, the new path of the Strait Biennale has begun which will be presented in Milan tomorrow, with the participation of various curators, to share the possible evolutionary scenarios and the consequences that are affecting territories, cities and inhabitants.