Milanofficine / Playing with Pamuk
Playing with Pamuk (PWP) is a contemporary art project by Gennaro Castellano & Reporting System with the aim to understand how society answers one of the more urgent challenges that our civilisation faces: building a more mature and conscious intercultural society. The research that Reporting System is carrying out proposes to involve art and culture into the process of integration between European cultures and dialogue with extra-Europeans.
Playing with Pamuk was born from the view of the trends of contemporary society, such as meeting and challenging between cultures and the difficulties of people to relate themself beyond the categories of race, religion and social class. It has been thought as a creative way to test how the contemporary man perceives himself and the others, as a work in progress that lead the research step by step from Milan to other emblematic cities like Hamburg and Istanbul.
Thought up within the 9th district of Milan, a microcosm of different cultures, the project suggests new visions and methods towards important issues of nowadays, utilising the intercultural practice as an opportunity to reassess the role of art and artists in social discourse. In a participative process the community of the area has been involved into a workshop that was thought up as a game in which the level of mixophobia (the fear of losing their culture and traditions due to contact with outsiders) and mixophilia (the desire to lose them in order to acquire a new state of being) of each participant was measured.
Inspired from “Other Colours” an essay by Orhan Pamuk, an author who reflected many issues including differences between East and West, with whole attention to freedom of thought and expression, rights of minority groups, the role of women in society and invites to reflect about a real chance of a clash of civilisations. The game he imagined revolves around a scale of values, from one to ten, which measures the possible levels of integration.
In Playing with Pamuk individuals, couples, families, senior communities and school groups, both Italians and foreigners were invited to interact, discussing the subject of living together and, if possible, having a positive dialogue between different cultures. We have chosen to use different kind of tools such as creative writing, multiple choice tests and open ended questionnaires of different levels based on language ability, furthermore through the medium of photography developing their imagination capturing fragments of their daily life, not very different like someone let us intend.
The project also provides various actions within emblematic places in the city, as series of performances in which standing people carry posters composing sentences with intercultural meanings in order to let the walkers stop ahead and reflect about the matter.
Playing with Pamuk is an uncommon moment of public debate about migration and integration processes which has offered the opportunity for a range of voices, that generally does not participate in public debate, to express themselves.
Playing with Pamuk was born from the view of the trends of contemporary society, such as meeting and challenging between cultures and the difficulties of people to relate themself beyond the categories of race, religion and social class. It has been thought as a creative way to test how the contemporary man perceives himself and the others, as a work in progress that lead the research step by step from Milan to other emblematic cities like Hamburg and Istanbul.
Thought up within the 9th district of Milan, a microcosm of different cultures, the project suggests new visions and methods towards important issues of nowadays, utilising the intercultural practice as an opportunity to reassess the role of art and artists in social discourse. In a participative process the community of the area has been involved into a workshop that was thought up as a game in which the level of mixophobia (the fear of losing their culture and traditions due to contact with outsiders) and mixophilia (the desire to lose them in order to acquire a new state of being) of each participant was measured.
Inspired from “Other Colours” an essay by Orhan Pamuk, an author who reflected many issues including differences between East and West, with whole attention to freedom of thought and expression, rights of minority groups, the role of women in society and invites to reflect about a real chance of a clash of civilisations. The game he imagined revolves around a scale of values, from one to ten, which measures the possible levels of integration.
In Playing with Pamuk individuals, couples, families, senior communities and school groups, both Italians and foreigners were invited to interact, discussing the subject of living together and, if possible, having a positive dialogue between different cultures. We have chosen to use different kind of tools such as creative writing, multiple choice tests and open ended questionnaires of different levels based on language ability, furthermore through the medium of photography developing their imagination capturing fragments of their daily life, not very different like someone let us intend.
The project also provides various actions within emblematic places in the city, as series of performances in which standing people carry posters composing sentences with intercultural meanings in order to let the walkers stop ahead and reflect about the matter.
Playing with Pamuk is an uncommon moment of public debate about migration and integration processes which has offered the opportunity for a range of voices, that generally does not participate in public debate, to express themselves.
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