Young Visiting Urban Explorer 2021 - Chloe's booklet

UNE UNE SÉRIE SÉRIE DE DE FOLLIES FOLLIES POUR POUR FOLLES FOLLES CHLOÉ MACARY-CARNEY

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This booklet gathers the research and work I developed in the framework of a two-week residency in Turin, Italy, invited by the assocaition Torinostratosferica. I would like to thank them for providing this framework.

I would also like to thank the feminist bookshop Nora Books and Coffee for their warm welcome and kind support.

I am also so grateful to IL POSTO DELLE PANCHINE for their exchanges, their info and their kind support.

Thank you as well to Sabrina, Barbara, Giovanni, Cessa, Luca, Jaka, Arthur and Sarah for supporting the research by sharing their ideas around a map on a table the course of a long evening of chats, laughs, debates and sketches that you will also find here in these pages.

CONTENTS 14 days of exploration

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I. observations

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II. community

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1. the rivers 2. the vestiges 3. the intersticial spaces 4. the privatization of public conclusion

1. interviews

il posto delle panchine sabrina barbara 2. collective mapping conclusion

II. a proposal 1. a folly for voguing 2. a folly forum 3. a folly for healing 4. a folly for breaking bread

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28 29 30 34 38 48 50 52 54 56 58

BIOGRAPHY 07/2021 : YOUNG VISITING URBAN EXPLORER RESIDENCY Turin, Italy 06/2021 : collective exhibition S O N A M B U L E, Atelier Flamme, Paris, France 05/2021: guest lecturer, University of the Underground 03/2021 – 05/2021 : exhibition Fredpop, Atelier Flamme, Montreuil, France 03/2021 : article Dissent at the LACMA ‘by minor people who don’t matter,’ #108 Ups & Downs: Reception Histories in Architecture, OASE Journal 02/2021 : Obtention of the architect license HMONP, École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris La Villette, Paris, France 10/2020 – 03/2021 : research residency, New Politics and Afrofuturisms program, University of the Underground 09/2020 – current : architecture teacher, Conseil d’Architecture d’Urbanisme et de l’Environnement de Paris 09/2020 – 02/2021 : La Table exhibition, Paris, France 09/2019 - 05/2020 : architect, Oualalou + Choi, Paris, France 2016 - 2019 : master of architecture, École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris La Villette 08 - 09/2017 + 02/2018 : architect, 403 architecture [Dajiba], Hamamatsu, Japan 2016 – 2017 : Erasmus study abroad, master 1, focus on inclusive design and design thinking, Design Strategy department, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

I am a French-American architect, born in 1994.

I live and work in Paris. I obtained the French license of architect Habilitation à la Maîtrise d’Œuvre en son Nom Propre in February 2021 at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris La Villette in Paris, France from which I graduated in 2019.

I defend the idea that architecture is a social art, space being a medium to which we all have access to and which we all have our own experience of, every day. Thus, my work is transdisciplinary and my projects take on various mediums (drawing, experience design, installation, etc.) and are shared via a variety of formats (for example, A4 publications, KPOP songs, 3D models, etc. ). I want to make architecture, and especially public space, more accessible and inclusive by creating spaces and projects that allow for dialogue, exchange, and the listening and welcoming of others.

I have been working on the question of gender since 2018 with the project of a nomadic and experimental space called Woman Cave with artist Léticia Chanliau and anthropologist Aleksandra Belova .

In March 2021, we published a book dedicated to the question of the place of women in architectural space and the space of the city.

This project allows us to approach a more theoretical side of the questions raised during the Woman workshop conducted in JulyAugust 2019 and we continue this work with our annual publication titled ‘The Woman Journal’.

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2. che tristezza!

1. un grande maniglia

14 DAYS OF EXPLORATION

The first day was spent in Spezia, before going to the offices of Torinostratosferica.

I discovered a vast marketplace that occupies daily Sottopasso Spezia, a vast public space that is washed and cleaned in the afternoon, and then completely empty in the evening. The inhabitants depend on this market to buy most things, and to find goods in the afternoon, one must search for a shop. I discovered many wonderful doorknobs in Turin like the one pictured here.

People dance and play in Parco del Valentino, all day and all night as the park is totally open to the public at all hours. Here, a group dances in a circle, reminding me of Hieronymous Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights.

What a wonderful freedom to have a space to dance with friends or strangers, on a grass field, under trees, in broad daylight, in the center of a city, along the river Po.

‘Giapponese à Roma‘, Momus

‘Suite Piemontese’ , La Capa Rusa

4. donne

3. calda I decided to follow the river for the day and bike along its coast. I discovered spaces where the nature eats away at the cemented paths and crawls over the fences of abandoned buildings. I biked past Casa UGI, a station of the old monorail now converted into a temporary home for the parents of the sick children stuck in the hospital across the street and then I biked past the S.M.A.T. water purification laboratory only to discover a vast freshly cut field pictured here, the Parco delle Vallere.

I began seeking out the institutions and associations that help women and the LGBTQ+ community so I biked across the city, I followed along the wall that encloses the Monumental Cemetary of Turin to find the Centro Interculturale delle Donne Alma Mater. They couldn’t speak with me, I had to make an appointment via e-mail, I am still waiting for the response. I biked over to Parco Dora where a woman ate a sandwich with her dog, a man played guitar under a tree, and another woman painted watercolor sketches of the landscape while chatting to me in an Italian that I did not understand.

‘Bealaguna’ , Calicanto

‘Donuts mind if I do’ , CHAI

6. forno

5. agency 8

On the way to Mirafiori Sud, I stumbled upon a small market and bought a few yogurts from a man who sells them from his caravan.

I spent the afternoon looking for a public space where I could sit and eat that yogurt, and this took quite a while to find, despite the many interstitial plots of public grassy spaces installed between the collective housing blocks, large avenues and parking lots of the area.

I stumbled upon this sign of agency: two public benches positioned face to face, around a simple table made of seemingly found blocks, and ate the yogurt there.

In the morning, I volunteered at the Precolinear park and in the afternoon, I went over to he Parco d’Arte Vivente which is a museum of garden pavilions and follies that made me realize how Turin is in a sense a city of follies. In this park museum, you can find a public oven protected by a gazebo upon which raspberry and grapevines have grown, you can eat those raspberries. It is possible to make pizzas with the oven, anyone do so, you must only reserve a date in advance and pay for the wood, and someone will come heat the oven slowly, four hours in advance.

‘Lucid’ , Kelly Lee Owens

‘Ungaokhala’ , Malombo

7. divagazioni urbana In front of the Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista, I met with the group of friends who decided to start a podcast about the city, IL POSTO DELLE PANCHINE. We sat on a bench, a «panchine», in the nearby Parco Archeologico Torri Palatine to chat about their project and the transformations of the city. They are frustrated and angry : the city invests in tourism rather than the people, and there are no spaces to gather in the public without having to consume and spend money.

‘Ocean’ , The Velvet Underground

8. pesca I tested out the metro line and went to Monte Grappa. I walked through the Parco Della Tesoriera where you can find the Villa Tesoriera and then I walked to Parco Pubblico Pellerina and crossed the Dora river to find the Parco vittime del rogo nello stabilimento ThyssenKrupp which is just across from the ThyssenKrupp factory and also along Corso Regina Margherita which I then followed all the way to the Po, to find the Precolinear park of Torinostratosferica.

That evening, I met with Sabrina, a «fat girl» stand-up comedian of the LGBTQ+ community. ‘hORIZON’ , jSAN

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10. rosso

9. consolata I met Barbara a few days prior at the Spezia market and right away she so kindly proposed to grab a coffee.

We met at Caffe Torino along the Piazza San Carlo, and Barbara then brought me over to the Circolo dei Lettori, a place she goes to listen to lectures, but also just to sit and read.

We then crossed the Piazza Castello and walked down Via Giuseppe Garibaldi to find the Palazzo Falletti di Barolo, which used to be across from the women’s prison. She then showed me Piazza Savoia and finally, the canon stuck in the facade of Santuario della Consolata, pictured here.

I walked around Lingotto and following a recommendation of a fellow architect, visited the Green Pea shopping mall which exhibits innovative or «eco» projects and goods that one can purchase there.

On the last floor, a restaurant is paired with a bookshop who sells publications on Turin’s slow food movement. From what some locals have told me, the city is trying to reorient its image towards one of a green tech hub like that of Sillicon Valley.

‘My Street’ , ESG

‘Birthday Cake’ , Cibbo Matto

12. community

11. opinions 12

I biked along the river Po and prepared some thoughts and sketches on the city.

I organized a workshop at Nora Books and Coffee to get the inputs of the local community. We first each shared our experience of the city, we then collectively mapped out these experiences, which brought on a lot of discussion and debate, then we finally each designed a folly according to that experience, and each person’s needs.

‘Boyish’ , Japanese Breakfast

‘Vogue’ , Madonna

14. people

13. trees I went over to the Fondazione Merz which is in an industrial building that has been converted into an art museum. The big windows and the tall ceilings of the old factory bring in so much light, fitting for exhibiting works. I then walked across the San Paolo District that we had talked about the day before, by walking down Corso Racconigi all the way to Largo Tirreno. That evening, I met with friends to have dinner under the arcades of Via Po, an interesting experience to have of such a covered public space as it had rained all afternoon and continued to rain through the evening.

On my last day in Turin, a Sunday, the market beneath my apartment at Spezia was not open, and neither was the cafe I was so accustomed to going daily. I took the metro once more to reach Porto Susa, but first I walked under the arcades along Corso Vinzaglio to grab a bite to eat.

I waited under the metallic canopy of the train station before gaining my seat on the train.

‘Every time the sun comes up’ , Sharon Van Etten

‘Describe my life’ , Jimothy Lacoste

I. OBSERVATIONS

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Walking and biking around Turin, you can easily stumble upon a plethora of spaces that are seemingly abandoned just like was the case of the space that is today called the Precolinear park. But the closer you look, the longer you sit there and watch, and the more you will realize that these spaces are pockets of freedom. They are actually truly public spaces for they belong to no one and at everyone at once; these spaces are in a limbo that anyone can use their agency to act upon.

Turin is Italy’s third largest economic center after Rome and Milan and despite the oil crisis of 1973 which caused the automotive industry to decline, this city is still home to big businesses like Lancia and Alfa Romeo. Despite this image of a high-tech new Silicon Valley city of Italy, Turin is over 3 billion euros in debt, and since 1970, it’s population has declined from 1,2 million to 865 000 in 2000, leaving us with today 847 000 inhabitants ( as of January 31st 2021). This big industrial slowdown has created an urban decay of sorts where today almost 7% of city-owned buildings, this is about 1600 buildings, are unused and underused, not to mention on top of that, the private buildings and lands that have been left abandoned after the oil crisis, and the public gathering spaces and connecting spaces that are not taken care of. Public space though is vital for the wellness of people, especially poor people who cannot afford generous living spaces with a garden of proper ventilation.

Between 2008 and 2013, the number of Turin residents in absolute poverty rose to 7% of the population, while 14% of the population lacked the income needed to maintain an average standard of living.

I was here tasked with the goal of finding the next space where Torinostratosferica could make a public place. In the two weeks, a few elements of the city stuck out to me. These elements are plots of opportunity where in a sort of strange spatial limbo, in an in-between where the city doesn’t bother to invest in, the inhabitants could use their agency to create what they need.

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1. the rivers

The Po is the most important river of Italy by it’s length of 652 kilometers. The spaces along this river offer locals a space and time for play but also for calm, as sometimes, the nature seems to eat away at the cemented city landscape.

The Po seems to be most of all enjoyed for sports, as the numerous multisport clubs along the riverside attest to. During the day, you can find rowers on the water, and at night these clubs also host parties which echo music into the rest of the city. The river Po also creates a separation, where the hill-side to the east is known for being where «the rich people live».

Murazzi originates from the word «wall».

These riverside Murazzi along the Po River were built around the 19th century around the Piazza Vittorio to protect the city from the numerous floods of the river. The arcades underneath were originally destined to be used by the fishermen to store their boats.

In the 70s, these spaces began being used for bars and nightlife activities, some spaces even were self-managed. Around 2012, the city declared these spaces much close, following the complaints of neighbors frustrated with the noise. You can still come across one or two arcades though that are used as a bar or a concert hall, as here the Arci bar.

Towards the south, the riverside is less invested and cared for, the nature takes over the cemented paths which are crackled, but joggers and families do seem to frequent the area.

The city of Turin is well-known for the roman grid, the Quadrilatero romano, but the rivers break up that grid pattern and create spaces where the nature takes back or takes over.

As one local put it, the river creates queer spaces, it doesn’t care about the straight line.

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At the far south of the riverside, the thin bike path gives onto a vast field of grass encircled by trees and walking paths. The park even hosts a camping ground. You are suddenly catapulted into nature in only a few minutes of biking.

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2. the vestiges

The industrial history of the city is visible in many ways : some edifices are reused in new programs, some are abandonned and some are still used to this day. In the same vein, you can also find vestiges of the 2006 olympics and the 1961 international exhibition.

In Parco Dora an ironwork factory that closed in 1992 after a crisis of the steel and iron industry, is turned into a vast public park where many spaces are left quite undrawn and empty.

The visitors use this space in many different ways because there is room to appropriate the different areas.

In 1961, a monorail brought visitors over to the Palazzo del Lavoro designed by Pier Luigi Nervi. Today, a station of the monorail has been converted into Casa Ugi, a home for the parents of sick children in the nearby hospital, and the Palace of Nervi has been left totally abandoned.

Some other buildings were squatted by refugees who were forced out by police as the city promised renovating these vestiges so as to house the homeless refugees and migrants but according to locals, the city ended up running out of money to finish the project.

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In Mirafiori Sud, the factory area is still active.

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3. the intersticial spaces

There are undefined limbo spaces between the defined spaces with clear programs that I would call interstitial spaces. Sometimes it is a plot of land where the grass is overgrown and there is no public furniture, and sometimes it is a space that people have begun investing in by installing an impromptu garden or table. These spaces are plots of opportunity where it would be interesting to help the inhabitants express their needs and wants by supporting their ideas of how public space could be.

Ex-moi is an area of collective housing that is connoted as being dangerous or sketchy to some locals. Between the housing blocks, the common outdoor spaces are totally abandoned and not at all maintained. Some inhabitants have taken it upon themselves to create private gardens in these spaces by installing simple fences, potted plants, benches and tables right outside their door or window on the ground floor.

Miriafiori Sud is an area of collective housing that is very populated due to the nearby Fiat factory which attracted much immigration in the 50s and 60s which in turn pushed the city to expand the «Torino Casa» housing plan. This area today has many plots of grass that are seemingly uncared for, installed between the parking lots, long roads and big blocks of housing. Sometimes though, the locals install their own public furniture.

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4. the privatization of public

Torinostratosferica created a place-making project on one of the bridges that crosses over the river, precisely where the tramline used to pass, but no longer does. This space was left abandoned by the city, but it seems that because of the lockdown, the association was able to fix up the plot of land that was left abandoned, because volunteers had more free time, and also needed a valid excuse to be allowed outside. The association created public furniture and a bright yellow logo that was installed along the park they occupied, creating a space that was officially branded with the visual identity of this association that is funded by private funds, and permitted by the city to use this public space temporarily.

In the summer of 2021, the association installed a bar in a container, on the bridge, and began organizing parties among the other usual events ( workshops, yoga sessions, talks, etc.) which upset some locals. To be able to use this public space, one had to reserve a ticket, and abide by the rules of the event and the bar, for example, water bottles from outside were not allowed in the park on the bridge. This project thus began to illustrate ever so faintly the dangers of what can happen to a city when that which is public becomes private.

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conclusion

UNESCO defines public space as “an area or place that is open and accessible to all peoples, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level.” These spaces can be public spaces for gathering such as plazas, squares or parks, but they can also be connecting spaces, such as sidewalks and streets.

In the past year, Torinostratosferica has developed a “placemaking” project by occupying a space of the city where the tram used to run on the thin line between four municipal sectors of the city. This space was abandoned by the city, by the public, making it then possible for a private organization to occupy the space with the goal of making a public place or piazza, but with the funds of private organizations, since the city cannot today fund such a project on its own. This intervention is interesting, because it questions the notion of public. For whom is Torinostratosferica place making for?

And did they really make a place, or did they brand and market a space that was initially a public space? One story I observed onsite that brought up these questions was the struggle between Torinostratosferica and the small restaurant owner who installs his tables on the park space. Supposedly the old school tables that the restaurant-owner bought second-hand do not match the esthetic of the park, the yellow “branding” of this public space and it frustrates the association because, according to some, «he is just using this public space to make money.» Granted, to be able to use a public space in such a way, one must be granted a permit, and this is not the case for the restaurant owner, but in a sense, Torinostratosferica has also in their own right, installed their logo and the logos of the companies who have financed them, in a space that before did not belong to them, and still today, does not belong to them but for which they have been granted the temporary responsibility of. When the private interest of companies or even non-for-profit associations (who still do depend on money to stay afloat) however small or large is the deciding factor for the design of spaces, things get a little complicated, and the notion of public, manipulated.

The gap left by the lack of public finding in Turin today, creates a void where private investors can come in and, in many ways, big or small, privatize these spaces. They may maintain, activate and even beautify these spaces, but with the motive of generating capital rather than ameliorating and investing in the quality of life of the citizens of a city.

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After all, there are many spaces in the city where Torinostratosferica could very simply and quite easily, create a spatial project intended for the public. The city does not lack in space, quite the contrary in fact, it is a city of many plots of opportunity, it is really just a matter of knowing for whom and for what you want to make a place for.

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II. COMMUNITY

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An inclusive city is one that values all people and their needs equally ensuring all residents have a represented voice in governance or in the planning and in the budgeting of city projects so that even the poorest, most marginalized have access to secure and dignified livelihoods.

This is why, for my research in Turin, I reached out to feminist and lgbtq+ groups to hear the experiences of discriminated people of the city, so as to imagine, together, how the public spaces could be designed with their needs in mind. In a field that is historically male-dominated, it seems pivotal that we listen to the experiences of those who are under represented or too often not considered by those who design the spaces of the city.

First, I met with some locals to talk about things and visit the city together from their point of view.

Then, July 30th, I organized a workshop at the feminist bookshop Nora Books to discuss and map collectively their experiences of the city.

A sketched floorplan of an event at Nora Books

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1. interiviews Instagram posts from il posto delle panchine

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il posto delle panchine We met in front of the Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista one afternoon and then sat on a bench in the Parco Archeologico Torri Palatine. Il posto delle panchine is a group of friends who, during the lockdown in the city, decided to create a podcast about the city space, firstly, by observing and understanding it from the perspective of their window. They decided to call their project il posto delle panchine, meaning the place of the bench: « it’s a place to live our sociality, to meet people, we are really disgusted about the fact that we have to consume to meet people.»

When we met, one of the friends explained that a big problem in Turin is that there are no more places in the city center where people can meet, talk and exchange ideas without having to consume or buy something. In the past four years, the city center has become a place to consume food or beverages, «there is nothing anymore for the ordinary life, the bakery right next to here is actually a restaurant, there is no other bakery in the city center. This one closed during the lockdown because they are really a restaurant for tourists.

This shows the level we’ve reached here.» They wanted a place to express their ideas of the city, but couldn’t find a public space where it was possible. I understood from our meeting that this group of friends was frustrated with the priorities of the city, they feel as though funding is going more into tourism and creating bars or places to consume, rather than in the quality of life of the locals and people who live in the city year-round.

With their first podcast episode, they proposed an exercise, «divagazioni urbane» : an invitation to walk around the city without a fixed goal, without consuming something and to document it. They have three more episodes planned and hope to have the chance to organize an event to have people meet in autumn to talk about these issues.

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1. interiviews The poster of Sabrina’s stand-up comedy event at Nora Books The Dora river that we met up just across from.

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sabrina Sabrina did a stand-up comedy event one evening at Nora Books where she spoke of her experience being a «fat girl» and a victim of the patriarchy, nicknamed «Patrick» in her show. A week later, we meet up at the Bowie bar across from the Dora River in the Vanchiglia area.

Sabrina is not from Turin, but from «a city not small and not big,» where «there weren’t spaces for me because in that little city the people were close minded so when I was able to drive, I started to come to Turin and now I live here. I think that this city is a good city to live in.» In this sense, the city seems to be a liberating place for people coming from other regions or smaller cities where the mindset is perhaps not as open-minded and perhaps that changes how the public spaces are experienced for different people depending on what place they are comparing it to. She seems to say Turin is a safe city for queer bodies, « I spent 6 months in Moderna, and I felt people would look at me weird, but here in Turin, that’s not the case. When I go out, I don’t feel like I’m being judged here, also because I have my community and friends.»

Sabrina seems to feel more discriminated against for her body weight and size, something she experiences in many spaces of the city: «I am a fat girl and as a fat girl, I think that in this city, but not only, I am not so comfortable. Like with the chairs in public space, or on the bus and trains, chairs are always too small or in bars and restaurants where the tables are too near one another, the passage between them is too small for me and this is a discrimination that I feel. Another example is at the water park, the slides are too small.

People aren’t able to imagine that fat people go outside of their house. I am a small fat person, but I think people who are actually fat can’t move on their own without these problems.» I found this an interesting remark because in France for example, there are specific measurements we must apply to the buildings that will welcome public, and for economic reasons, we always apply just the minimum necessary to follow the law so that a person in a wheelchair can

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pass in a hallway of a public building. But rarely do we consider the joy and pleasure of different bodies that don’t follow the «normal» measurements, as Sabrina highlights with her frustration of not being able to fit into the slide of a water park.

There seem to be spaces in Turin that serve as safe spaces, or community places that have allowed Sabrina to make friends in a new city : « As an LGBT person there are some good places in the city, like Nora Books which is a good place where you can go alone and talk with someone. Or Casarcobaleno, it’s a place where Archigay Torino is there and other associations, so that is a place where you can go alone and it’s okay, you can make friends, talk with people...and then the community is there, so you can go and feel at home.»

Stand-up is a way for Sabrina to transform the negative experiences and I find it interesting that stand-up is actually not something you do alone, but that you share with others in a very public way because you put yourself in front of a large group of people who listen to you and also exchange with you by laughing. «I started doing stand-up because of my work. I spend a lot of time in the office on the telephone and my work is a ‘work of man’, so when people hear my voice on the telephone, they want to speak with a man, they want to speak with another person, who knows? So I started to write down these phone conversations. When I finished writing them down, with my friends, we looked at the words and realized maybe we can do stand-up with this. And I realized I could maybe do stand-up with other parts of my life, like with me being fat, the discrimination I experience could be written as stand-up because for me it’s the way to survive and to change something bad into a good energy for me. I hope that the people who listen will think about that.»

I asked her about the spaces she does stand-up in because I wondered if the different spaces engender different reactions and a different exchange with the audience; «I do stand-up in a lot of different spaces. Nora books is a small space but I like it. I also go to big spaces like on a stage, it was cool because it was a big stage in a big festival but at the same time, I was far from people, it was hard to understand if people laughed or not, that was difficult, I couldn’t see their reaction. But it was very cool because everything was big and I was very excited and scared! haha!»

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«I did some stand-up in the piazza [public places], that situation was half-half : people are not near to you but are not far from you, it’s kinda a half-way, it’s okay like an experience, but the people are distracted maybe, but it’s okay. I think my text is approachable in different ways: if it’s the public at Nora Books, it’s okay, they can understand what I say. But in other places, they can understand but it’s not their problem so they don’t totally get it. But in one place, someone came after the show and told me, ‘I never thought about this!’, and that’s my goal, if someone says that, then I’m okay.»

The interview with Sabrina made me realize that perhaps the question of how to imagine space for queer bodies isn’t just about making the public spaces safer, but also about making life fun, enjoyable and playful for everyone. This also links back to the interview with Il posto delle panchine because if we can make spaces in the city where people can play and talk and laugh together for free, without having to pay or consume, then this experience is truly accessible and includes everyone.

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1. interiviews Snapshots from a walk around the city with Barbara

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barbara Barbara lives in the area around metro Spezia and works at the university. We met at the local market on the big piazza at Spezia: she asked if I spoke French as her father was French too, and she shared that the subject of her thesis was about Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women and the history of American feminism.

We met a week later at Caffe Torino under the arcades around Piazza San Carlo in the city center. Barbara loves Turin : «I love this city a lot but I didn’t really live here much this past year ... usually I go to many conferences or go to the theater but I have much resistance, I don’t go to places where there are many people anymore.»

She wanted to show me the place she loves going to for conferences or even just to sit and read : Circolo dei lettori, a cultural space that belongs to the region of Piemonte. It was closed for the summer, but we managed to get in the courtyard and the big staircase. She began speaking of a conference they organize once a year on the subject of spirituality; « People say often that our society is one that is material, to the contrary, I think actually that there is a profound need in each of us to go back into ourselves. It’s not true that are we are only interested in that which is outside of us. We look for and we find our own spirituality even for example if it’s a matter of being a vegetarian, there are different forms of personal research to find that spirituality.» I found that an interesting angle from which to approach the notion of public space as later on Barbara also mentioned that reading is her addiction, or her religion of sorts but it is something that is done alone; perhaps it is also important to create spaces where one can be outside of their homes, but can also feel utterly alone. « Turin is the city of social saints, there are many people who worked to help the society, perhaps because Turin is one of the first cities of Italy to be industrialized, which attracted people from the countryside so it created spaces of poverty in the city and people started fighting against sickness and poverty and social exclusion to help these people. [...] I think Turin is a city of meetings, people from

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Snapshots from a walk around the city with Barbara

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other places are always welcome here. In the 60s, people from the south of Italy came, and now there are people today coming from other countries. There are always some problems, of course, but in this city we try to welcome the other, that’s my impression.»

We crossed Piazza Castello to make our way over to the Palazzo Barollo « It could interest you because Juliette Colbert, the daughter of the minister Colbert, married the count of Barolo and they had their palace near here, Palazzo Barollo. His wife, who died without having children, helped the city a lot and did a lot of good for the city. Palazo Barollo was just in front of the female prison at the time, and she could hear the cries of the women there and she started to help these women by creating laboratories, schools so that these women, after leaving prison, could start a new life and avoid to go back to prison by living a better life. The prison was in the 19th century, now the building is something else.»

When I asked Barbara how the city could be designed to include more people, she spoke of her mother who is sick and uses a wheelchair « She has a wheelchair, but she feels shame when people see her, she doesn’t want to be seen. We have done what we can with the architectonic barriers of the city: in the metro, it’s basically accessible for everyone for example, but I must say there is the problem, it’s really just a problem for me, there are a lot of buildings built in the 50s-70s, ‘condominium’, they have 5 or 6 steps in the entrance every time and that is a problem, so I have to carry the wheelchair up for her to be able to see the doctor. It’s hard to bring her from the apartment to the street and that is a big problem for people who have a family member who is sick. [...] She could even come here in the cafe because she can take the metro for example, but she feels too much shame to be seen in public in a wheelchair so she refuses to come to the city center. I think it’s a problem of her sickness.»

I asked if she has a community that she can exchange with « No... but in Italy the population is ageing. My mom has a particular character, but if it was possible to create groups of people to meet up with and do things with these older people who are very solitary and stuck at home, it could help. My mom reads a lot thankfully, but she watches a lot of TV and that’s all. Twenty years ago I tried to teach her the computer and that would help her today, but there’s nothing to do. [...] But there are a lot of people who have a different mentality and a different personality than my mother, and it would be interesting to make something for them.»

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2. collective mapping Snapshots of the collctive mapping workshop held at Nora Books and Coffee on July 30th

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To get a better idea of the city and the needs of the locals, I organized a small discussion-workshop at Nora Books and Coffee, which followed a simple few steps.

1- Presentation of each other and a moment to share our personal experience of the city.

2- Collectively map out our experiences of the city:

- what spaces mark you? ( positively or negatively)

- what spaces do you feel need an intervention?

- what is missing in the city for you?

- what are good spaces for you in the city?

3- Design a personal folly according to each person’s experience of the city

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li! e opo spac c c rt ra a a B bau rtz Me

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Porta Pa lazzo Market

Ex-zoo

Fucsas skyscra p

er

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« Bristol of Turin » : an area with many brick houses and very nice, but no public transportation ( Daniella )

spaces of freedom the home of people who made a home with what they have, with garbage cruising area

Spiaggia paradiso dei cuori ( Cessa )

rave area

the waves of gentrification « too large street, I’m too visible » ( Sarah )

1995 - ’00s : the marketplace is outside of the first city walls so it is like a free zone where many different voices are heard, and it is the starting point of gentrification in Turin because in the ‘90s, the city started implementing the Plano Urbana, which was spearheaded by the «Gate» project that got funding from the EU : it consisted in the revalorization of the Porta Palazzo which created the first wave of gentrification of the central area around Nora books.

« area of old men » ( Anca )

2000’s -’10s : the second wave of gentrification that spread out into a third wave with the university project by Foster and Partners, « when they bring in a famous architect, you know a new wave of gentrification has begun» ( Daniella )

« very easy to get in a fight here for no reason - many white guys coming from the mill »

today : a push-pull situation where the gentrfication is trying to spread into Aurora, but sometimes it recedes « the last big bomb of gentrification » : an area that will probably be taken over soon, but it has not started yet

« feeling unsafe people will be fighting »

neighborhoods

2020 : bastione artist collective occupation

Crocetta : very rich neighborhood with big houses but very boring, no places to sit in public rich people who can’t live in Crocetta

« Torino-normativity »

Working people Mirafiori (so related to Fiat)

You have to keep a low profile, you don’t have to show anything about your life, feelings are banned but there is a lot of judgment, anything that doesn’t fit this torinonormativity will be judged, but no one will tell you. It is an old and slow town, the mud will judge you.

Aurora : «non legal» people area Bariera de Milano : all the «problems» have been pushed here, an area that is poor

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Cessa proposes a «plan for a Valentino meeting,» a space where people can be hidden so that they do not have to hide their desire for another. This structure can be installed in a park, and the idea is to not have any straight lines so as to create a queer space that is not straight. This idea seems a bit inspired by the cruising spaces of the city that are often situated in the parks or abandoned spaces where nature has taken over, allowing a certain privacy that allows one to be themselves without being totally visible, all the while still being seen.

Sarah imagined a structure where people could dance with others but in their own personal private space without being totally seen and visible by others. Curtains would create this separation of the private spaces, but would be a bit transparent so that only the dancer’s silhouette would be visible by the others, this way the person would not be judged by the strangers dancing around.

Cesse

Sarah

Along the Po river, in the Parco Ignazio Michelotti, there used to be the zoo of the city but it was closed down so that a new bigger zoo could be opened in the outskirts of the city.

Finally, this never happened, and the original site of the zoo was simply left abandoned. Balloons being a symbol of the city, Jaka proposes to transform this area into dancehalls and bars with balloons on rails that would serve as the transportation method in this adult attraction park.

Giovanni proposes the “folie tropicale”, as a reference to the recent weather changes of the city that resemble more and more a tropical climate rather than the usual mountain weather. He proposes to install a pop-up forest to deconstruct Torino-normativity, the mentality of locals who are known for hiding what they think, not showing off what they know or have, all the while «silently judging others.» This forest could be installed in a less rich area of the city so as to offer people a surprise architecture amongst the trees of the forest, and architecture usually installed in wealthier neighborhoods.

Jaka

Giovanni

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Daniella came as a representative of Il posto delle panchine ( the group of friends mentioned earlier) and so, drew a folly with their ideal city in mind. She proposed an anarchic folly that would be a kind of huge storage box packed full of tools and materials to build a house or a space for anyone who needs it, but who would belong to no one and which would not be permanent. These tools would be for everyone and anyone who needs them.

Daniella - Il posto delle panchine

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easy to build and dismantle. available to those who need it / who takes care of it non-permanent not owned

Anca works at Nora Books and at some point during our talk, she took a break and sat with us to draw a space that she enjoys. She likes the beach and finds it relaxing to hang out along the Po River around the Bridge Ponte Sassi. She wishes it were possible to bathe in the water, float in it and relax there, but the river water is today too dirty. On the weekends she likes to hang out at the beach or in nature so she wishes it would be possible to bathe there or in Parco Pietra Colletta. We had a laugh when she pointed to that place on the map and she asked what were the dots that we had drawn : it was Anca

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actually also the area that Cessa said is a popular cruising area for gay men. Daniella pointed out that we shouldn’t generalize what certain spaces mean or represent for all bodies of the LGBTQ+ community as a whole because different people can use the same space in different ways without being aware of it even though they may be from the same community.

Arthur took in the input of what the others at the workshop said about their experience of the city as he has only lived in Turin for a short time.

He notes that Parco Dora is already a perfect folly because the industrial structure in the park is open, outside, has no barriers and is «huge.» He therefore tried to imagine a folly for the Collette Park that could host a variety of programs: parties, raves, concerts, performances, and other activities in a smaller version of the structure. He imagined a tentlike installation that can adapt to the activity inside and could also cover or uncover a vast area, like Arthur

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a tent that rolls out and then close up when needed. It is shaped like a cone, where at the tip, a small space with 2 meters high permits small functions that are more intimate, but this can extend out to a 20-meter tall opening if needed. This way, he says, even if there is a big concert, there will still be an intimate space at the end that people can go to, and the space adapts to everyone’s needs of being hidden or visible.

Luca studied architecture in Milan and moved to Turin recently. He proposes an intervention in a parking lot in the center of the city that offers a beautiful view of the Mole, a famous edifice of the city, all the while feeling free to enjoy the city.

He proposes to install trees in this parking lot to create spaces where the body is less visible, spaces where your body can be free : cruising areas. Between those two areas of trees, a viewpoint is created to focus on the view he already enjoys in that area, but by adding a bench, that view can be enjoyed with someone else, it can be the «bench of love.»

Luca

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Many different topics came up that didn’t necessarily pertain to the question of gender or the notion of queer bodies in the city, and this was really interesting.

conclusion

The gentrification of Turin was a big discussion and the waves

of its development were debated. This was brought up as we were talking about what spaces allow a certain freedom for different bodies because someone mentioned the idea of creating a gay bar in Bariera Milano, an area that today is very poor, and is the receiving end of all the «problems» that have been pushed out of the city center because of gentrification. This idea sparked some debate: on the one hand, the young creative people who are trying to live outside the «Torino-normativity» are also marginalized from the city because they cannot afford the lifestyle that is perhaps expected of them, and yet, if they venture into these «poorer» neighborhoods, they create an attraction that pulls in the factors for gentrification. In any case, because of these transformations, someone who lives in the city center complained that it is no longer an area to really live, but only a city for tourists and night-long parties in bars. It frustrates them because these gentrified areas have become places where it is impossible to enjoy the public spaces without having to consume a drink or a meal in a bar, especially after the lockdown, where now the restaurants take up more space in the street with their tables and chairs. This makes it harder for different bodies to find a space for them.

The visibility of the body was often mentioned. Someone brought

up the story of their friend, a woman, who got dressed up to go to an important presentation in the city center, only about 20 minutes by foot from her place, but once she started walking in the street, she felt so observed to the point of feeling embarrassed that she finally ended up taking a taxi just to drive her down the street. Another woman also shared that she feels the male gaze when she bikes on big avenues and streets that are not protected by trees, and she is shocked by how the men don’t try to hide their gaze. Someone else also mentioned that the straight lines of the city don’t allow for places of pleasure in the public, whereas the river doesn’t care about heteronormativity and being «straight.» They remarked that it is actually in the wild spaces of nature, near the river, that bodies can express their desires because it is along the river that the cruising spaces of Turin can be found. I gathered from the discussion that there is an important balance to find between being able to do what you wish in public spaces, all the while having a certain degree of privacy, while still being able to see others, or meet new people in

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these spaces, like a game of gazes, there aren’t enough spaces of freedom in that sense where you can do what you wish, without being watched, yet still being safe enough to do as you please. As we can see in the follies that people proposed, there is often this idea of creating a space where you are not too visible, so that you can be free to do what you please.

The barriers of the city were also brought up. A very loud church

bell interrupted our talk at one point, as a matter of fact, we were sitting right in front of it. For one person, the sounds of the city are barriers, and the church bell feels like a male dominant sound that is repeated throughout the day. The motorbikes going through narrow streets are also seen as male dominating sounds. For others, the lack of proper transportation to access certain areas that could be great places to live while still working in the city ( «the Bristol of Turin,» for example), is a frustrating barrier, and some bridges are also a barrier that prevents friends from seeing each other as often as they wish they could. The wealthy Crocetta neighborhood is seen by a barrier for some as there are no public spaces to sit and eat a lunchtime sandwich for example, «it’s so depressing.» Vittorio Veneto place is a barrier for some who felt it was a place for «white guys» who get drunk there, it is «very easy to get into a fight for no reason» in that area, so they will find routes to avoid that very central public space.

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III. UNE SERIE DE FOLLIES POUR FOLLES

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I propose “Une Série de follies pour folles”, a series of follies for the queer bodies of the city.

A folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, it transcends the range of usual garden buildings and of usual architectures because it is a smaller scale, it is a language that we can use to play with the public space of the city and to transgress the usual rules of public spaces.

18th century landscape gardening featured follies representing ruined, exotic temples of faraway places or time periods, sometimes they represented rural virtues or ideal clichés in a synthesized, essentialized micro-architecture, in a similar way like the Medieval village of Torino, these architectures are recreations inspired by clichés and historical edifices, but they are synthetic and, in a sense, cyborgs, as they are artificial, based on an idea of something real.

Many follies were also built as a form of poverty relief to provide employment for peasants and unemployed artisans who could find some employment via the construction of these small architectures.

These buildings usually appeared to have no real usage.

Follies did not necessarily have a function besides decoration. They would imitate architectures of far away times and places in the image of the romantic painting we see here for example from 1797 by Caspar David Friedrich, «Landscape with Temple in ruin».

I propose to play with this architectural format because it also connotes a silliness or a madness: “folly” means craziness in French, but an older version of the word also means “delight” or “favorite abode”. “Une folle” is also a feminine version of the word crazy, that also designates a gay man. Folle means a weird person, but it can also mean a person with a big joy, and it can also designate a person with mental disabilities, or mentally alienated. The adjective designates someone who cannot be contained or controlled.

In this sense, I wish to play with these words and this format to propose a series of follies for those people who cannot be controlled, but who also exude a great joy by celebrating their difference. Perhaps we could use these follies as places for doing what some may see as “frivolous”: we could use these spaces to speak together freely, to imagine how the society and the city could be, to dream collectively of spaces that could belong to us all, for free, without having to consume or buy something or look at an advert. By installing these follies in public spaces, we could create spaces where the dominated then dominate and take back the public space and use that space as a tool to reimagine how it could really be public.

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1. a folly to vogue

Voguing is a style of dance developed in the New York of the 70s in gay, Latino and Afro-American clubs. The name comes from the popular fashion magazine Vogue. To vogue is to make a parody of the white culture around fashion and the archetype of what a beautiful body is supposed to be. Voguing is a symbolic dance that is empowering and flamboyant. It is a call for liberty in defense of the freedom for each body to express their creativity in a subversive manner by becoming a model and imitating the poses of top models in the pages of fashion magazines.

This folly for voguing proposes an outdoor space to be installed in the PAV garden museum of the city. The structure is made of wood and metal scaffolding. Those dancing can climb upon the metal scaffolding or use it to create backdrops or install lighting while the benches along the elevated walkway invite other bodies to watch those performing and cheer them on.

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2. a folly forum

In ancient Roman times, the marketplace was the center of political, economic and religious life in the city. It was there that the public met to exchange ideas. When meeting with locals, a recurring issue was brought up: the lack of public spaces to meet and chat with others without having to consume anything. It became clear the city needs a forum for expressing ideas openly and safely in a safe space.

I propose here a forum built of brick, elevated and visible in the public space, yet protected with high walls and a translucent roof.

This forum space would be installed in the Plazza San Carlo, one of the major central public spaces of the city, to give back to the local people a space for public speech and debate in the heart of the city.

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3. a folly for healing

Between metro Spezia and Lingotto is a hospital district not far from the Po riverside. This area feels somber: the facades of the buildings are gray and dreary, and the many parking lots full of cars also gives a harsh atmosphere. Near this area, along the river you can find the Casa Ugi, an old monorail station now used as a home for the parents of children hospitalized nearby. Not far, a children’s playground can be found in the park along the Po, right next to an abandoned building. How could we inject into this neighborhood a healing space for families and their loved ones in the hospital to find some respite?

I propose to carve into the riverside landscape to install a subtle cinema folly for healing. The cinema is therefore protected from the city in that it is installed into the slope of the riverside which is also a way of immersing the visitor totally in the moment of the movie. This space is imagined for the handicapped, disabled and sick bodies.

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4. a folly for breaking bread

To break bread is to share a meaningful connection over food with a stranger. Food brings people together, it is an equalizing, physical need we all share to survive regardless of class, culture or body type. In the Mirafiori Sud neighborhood, parking lots and plots of overgrown grass surround the collective housing blocks of this neighborhood. I propose to create a public oven where the community can cook and eat together. This space is imagined as one of mutual aid, with the idea that everyone cooks together for one another, preparing food on the long tables and benches made of rammed earth, and installed directly on the plots of overgrown grass.

A simple wooden structure is installed so that people may attach their tarp, parasols or sheets to protect from the sun and rain if need be. This space is imagined as a simple and open free kitchen that anyone can appropriate and personalize to make their own.

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