F Michelle Vasseur

Exactly nineteen years have passed since the interview she gave to Mariella Tanzarella for the Italian newspaper “Repubblica” on May 31, 2002, at her home overlooking the Navigli; our meeting today instead has a transoceanic destination, the Florida of “I’M Italian”. It is certainly not she who reminds us of the episode: she does not catalog, she does not keep, she does not like, for this reason, interviewing her and doing research, it is a real discovery, there is no ambition and there is no narcissism on her part in telling, only sincerity in answering.

With Max Mannarelli, founder of Trottoir in the 90s in the historic headquarters in Brera, with her son Milian Vasseur Mannarelli, “art dealer” she has continued since 2003 at the Milanese customs, with the spaces and sets that can be admired, including concerts, pictorial exhibitions, book presentations, of which one example above all was the free permanent exhibition on the occasion of Expo 2015 of great painters of the twentieth century, a tribute to the city.

For artists and creatives, the Trottoir is a place of comparison, exchange of ideas and pure creation, life, as it was possible in places of other times and other geographies, while the public can enjoy the final part: the exhibition , the concert, the presentation of talents. The “creatives” lived, before the Covid closures, 19 almost continuously from eleven in the morning to the dawn of the next, the art that is not far from everyone’s life, but right on the trottoir, in the heart of a metropolis like Milan, the contrary to the isolation and the ivory towers, of the Academies, in which artists and writers are sometimes accused of withdrawing.

Although Michelle Vasseur is cosmopolitan and has also lived in the USA, she loves Italy and in Milan she feels like she is in Europe, she says that the other places she lived in were ... parentheses. Her choices are aesthetic, but the way of working always in collaboration, before she comes the bond with the artists and collaborators then the economic decisions, not always advantageous, as patronage is not.

-Yourartisticbeginningsare fascinating,somuchsothatthey cannotbecalledbeginnings,but immediatesuccess.Atleastahint?

-I was a correspondent for Le Figaro and I met Vito Pallavicini, (joining the Curci editions, “Carosello”, in the historic location that hosted Giovanni D’Anzi for the timeless “O mia bela Madunina!”). Intimidated in that historic room, amidst furniture from the past and dust intercepted by a lazy sun, in November 1975 I composed Femme, avec toi for Nicole Croissille, but still under the pseudonym of France Ferrari, before SIAE was officially made. Two and a half million copies sold meant that Pallavicini immediately wanted me on his staff! Not only texts in French, but in Italian and regardless of whether they are for male or female singers, I can identify with the music, to make the text credible, which will be adapted to the singer’s voice, personality, style. So I continued, for artists like

Marcella

Yinterrupted.

-Doyoualsohaveentrepreneurial talent,asTrottoirshowsorarethere otherprecedents,inadditiontothe recordcompany(“Vitamine.Sette note”)?

- I interrupted my musical career for the birth of my son Milian, I opened a Beauty Clinic, also in Milan, importing French medical techniques for aesthetics, to give beauty possibilities, “democratizing” the requests, so that they were accessible to a number surgery and aesthetic medicine are more numerous.

-MichelleVasseur,ayoungFrench womanandartist,justoutofthe Sorbonne,withadegreeinArt History,decidedtomovetoItaly,to Milanintheearly1970s:why?

-I chose Italy for affinity, the country of art and artists, for a Master’s. I felt at home and belonged to this nation. Elective affinities.

-Wouldthesameyoungartistleave forMilantoday,forthisMilan?

give in to any compromise: Milan welcomes, but, as in Italy generally, you need to arm yourself with patience for the bureaucracy and noise pollution of the city! Milan is a city that, for as long as I have known it, has facilitated communication, is on a human scale, even if now it is becoming too individualistic. Perhaps the natural element is missing: rivers, lakes, mountains ... here at the Darsena sui Navigli, the new headquarters of the Trottoir since 2003, there is a natural element, the water of the canals!

-Aretheliterarysalons,where womenwereMusesandpatronsof writersandartists,suchasMmede Staël,amodeloraninspirationfor thebirthofthe‘Trottoir“?

There are no Muses, women or men, there are only Patrons. Muses are sexless, like angels! Philippe Daverio came to the Trottoir, like Vittorio Sgarbi still today, to make the trottoir a cradle of artists.

-Wasthereamomentthat interrupted,temporarilyhaltedyour musicalcareer?

-In 1978, just as the Musical (Little Italy-Martine) with Marcella Bella had to be prepared, Joe Dassin died and an important musical collaboration, an artistic partnership and intense mutual trust was

- Of course not, the world has changed and I would look for the creativity of the East, or of the USA. Getting to know the global village is the experience, even artistic, that young people must have, then we had the dream of creating Europe.

Whatcanyougiveuptolivein Milan?

-You must not give up anything,

-How did the idea of a place like the “Trottoir” come about, what contribution have artists, musicians and writers made to its history? How were they inspired by it?

The creator was Max Mannarelli, who created this place calling it “Le Trottoir” not far from a hotel by the hour, the Naples, Garibaldi area, in the historic headquarters of Fernet Branca, near the Brera Academy, from which they poured young artists looking for spaces and visibility. At the counter once he met Andrea Pinketts who told him he had found his home in the room, he wrote only there, in the chaos of the room, always and only by hand, without any correction! Le Trottoir has entered the pages of his novels, as one of the typical places of Milan at night.

-Howlived“Trottoir”A.Pinketts?

Now here we have a room decorated, especially for him who wrote between his inevitable cigar and beer. His generosity was equal to his talent, his availability towards young people, to value their work and to give directions. He never corrected his really handwritten pages.

Shortly before his death, knowing he was ill, I wrote him a letter that I did not have the courage to send him, but which should be made public, as a testimony not only of immense esteem for the writer, but for the man.

-Isawandthenlistenedtotheduo withthesingerSusannaParigiin “lessonsofindiscipline”:doyou wanttotellaboutthisexperience andgive…alessonofindiscipline towomen?

-My indiscipline was precisely in having to perform in public, at the theater, almost a violence to myself,

Tmy innate shyness was combined with a rigidity towards the body and also of the feelings. Performing in public as a singer, not only the author of my lyrics, was a hard test in a tour of important theaters in Italy such as the Strehler, the Autoff, the Parenti in Milan, the Cosenza theater, experiences I don’t know about still capacitate me. I sang the story of a prostitute: however, one must activate an aspect of oneself to be able to identify with situations that are so strong that they can be engaging in the text.

-Women...sincerely:howmuch havetheyenviedyou,fearedyou, hinderedyou,weretheyfriends withyou?

-I have had extraordinary friends, all more beautiful than me, when there is the level, there is no envy. I choose based on aesthetic criteria. If there has been hostility, it is because I have not evaluated the person well.

I live for beauty, even when I opened the aesthetic clinic, to give beauty. I prefer to give than to receive.

-Thehistoricalperiodinwhichyou wouldhavelikedtolive?

-The future.

I am tormented by the fact that I do not see the future, I am not nostalgic for the past, despite the cultural admiration for artistic and literary works.

I do not keep images, photos, I do not archive for the fear of time passing, but in reality it is not time that passes, but we are passing by!

This scares me and makes me angry, not being able to see what will happen.

-Doyouhavea“transoceanic” declarationtoentrusttothe magazine“I‘mItalian?”

-Create bridges between continents, of culture, but bridges that do not fall like the Morandi bridge. Fortunately, Italy has geniuses like Renzo Piano!

-Whatlessonindisobediencewould yougivetoawomanregardlessof ageandsocialstatus?

-This is the only lesson of disobedience that I feel like giving: yourself forgotten the clichés even if you need to remember so as not to make the same mistakes, but also to recreate the wonders of the past. Discover and rediscover the empirical value,

OF MAY 26

Michelle Vasseur