My fellow citizens want to forgive my outbursts of the past days: I do not do politics and I do not apply to anything, on the contrary, while I write these more calm reflections, I declare that I am not available to cover any assignment in any administrationbecause we Reggiors have seen too many cicero pro domo in circulation, and I am not part of this group. Another necessary premise is that nobody is authorized to use my ideas as a club to use against political opponents.
The cultural disaster of Reggio is certainly not originating from the day of the proclamation of the capital of culture 2027, but has deeper and distant roots over time. In fact, so far a design direction, a vision, an overall idea for the cultural sector, due, in my opinion, has been lacking at various reasons, including, last but not least, a bourgeois ruling class that still believes to live in the nineteenth century, with the obsolete rites that they used then: a culture for “lords”, which excludes the unwanted corpaccion of the suburbs, left to the abit Hours, ostentation, to the choice of the next SUV to buy, to the frittole and the chini pipi (good!), To the festivals and the pop concerts in the square.
For a serious reflection, then, in my humble opinion, the elephant must be recognized in the room: Reggio must produce and consume culture. Today, however, the city almost does not produce culture and certainly consumes cultural products purchased turnkey from outside. In the timid awakening of tourism in the city, who loves to taste the typical products of food and wine, I have been shouting for years that they serve zero km bookstores, which show the cultural and literary products of this land, instead of chasing national fashions imposed from above. The problem, as usual, is cultural.
On this trail, I allow myself to point out how some meritorious cultural associations, well financed by the administrative machine, carry out their precious activity by calling national celebrities to Reggio (which serves to unwary), but have never promoted local excellence, to help her make the national jump. Provincialism is a great illness, in my humble opinion.