The countdown is over: This morning at 10 am the second edition of the Biennale dello Stretto will be inauguratedThe chosen location is still Siacci Strong Battery in Campo Calabroa place from which you can dominate the entire Strait of Messina and a beautiful place rediscovered thanks to the first edition of the Biennale.
The second edition of “The Strait Biennial” will be a cultural chapter in the name of plurality and sharing. It is worth dwelling on these words that synthetically express its intentions. The Biennale, in the proposal of its creator Alfonso Femia, is more than an event, a cultural dimension intended to learn, before transferring and hypothesizing visions and solutions. Plurality and sharing, essential vehicles of contemporary thought and communication, in the Biennale translate into concrete choices, starting from the absolute chorality of the project.
The Biennale dello Stretto had an atypical debut. A private investor, the benefit company 500×100actively involved in the construction of cultural projects, has supported the investigation and valorization of the Mediterranean territory, through a research called “Invisible Mediterraneans”, conceived by the architect Alfonso Femiongoing since 2018, developed in the Strait of Messina area.
Over the years the project has grown, it has taken on an unexpected multidisciplinary breadth which led to the Biennale dello Strait in 2022. The 2024 edition is promoted by 500x100sb, OAPPC Reggio Calabria, OAPPC Messina; ANCE Reggio Calabria, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, University of Messina, Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, Metropolitan City of Messina, National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria, Municipality of Campo Calabro, Municipality of Villa San Giovanni, Gal Terre Locridee, Gal Area Grecanica, Gal Batir.
Three directors, each with their own specific professional, academic and institutional background, are working together, putting ideas on the table to build an organic narrative of the Mediterranean territory that looks towards the future.
Two dense macro-themes, one intertwined with the other. The first, “The three water lines” Already addressed in the first edition and, in contrast with the disposable trend of topics, reconfirmed for 2024. The second “Cities of the future”, declined for the cornerstones of the Public Spacefrom the Urban Mobility and Infrastructureof theInhabit and of the Treatmentfrom the School and of the Cultural hubs of the city and oriented towards design and process innovation.
Nineteen curators, a plural intellectual community participating in the exploratory process triggered by the Biennale dello Stretto, pursuing the objective of acquiring and sharing awareness of the potential of the Mediterranean area, bringing into play different elements, overlapping factors, even contrasting ones, in the context of a conceptually determined scope.
Architecture and Surroundings: architecture is the cultural engine of the Biennaleintended not as a simple professional practice, but as a key to the development and interpretation of the territory and the city. The Biennale dello Stretto creates connections between the three shores of the Mediterranean – African, Middle Eastern and European – and pushes towards more distant geographical dimensions, in search of potential similarities and parallel stories – ranging from architecture to art, cinema, photography, narrative, anthropology.
Multiple landscapes. Braudel spoke of “world-Mediterranean”, attributing to the word “world” a composite, plural meaning. A world inhabited by different peoples, in harmony and in opposition, who are constantly transforming. The Strait Biennial breaks away from Eurocentric logicstarting from the location, the extreme tip of Italy and its largest island, close to the African continent, from the choice to analyze the scenarios of the three shores, from the search for situations that are also very distant, with similar characteristics. Through the Biennale, architecture generates the humus to share the geographical, cultural, ethnic, political and historical differences of the Mediterranean and for human exchange. In this edition the directors have chosen the transversal approach of border crossing, broadening the horizons through design, anthropological, figurative, cinematographic and narrative investigation.