Regaining a sense of belonging
MAS WEEK
MAS WEEK - Festival di Architettura, Design e Arte
MAS WEEK addresses the theme of urban, social and cultural regeneration of Taranto. It intends to enhance the architectural, landscape and socio-cultural riches of the city and investigate the themes of living, sustainable construction, beauty, protection of the environment and landscape. Through Architecture, Design and Art it aims to strengthen the citizen's sense of belonging to the city, trigger links with the surrounding environment and strengthen the sense of identity in an inclusive way.
Italy
Local
Taranto
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
2024-10-26
No
No
No
As a representative of an organisation
MAS WEEK is a five days festival that takes place in Taranto and intends to investigate the issues related to living, sustainable construction, beauty and the protection of the environment and landscape through the sharing of themes on Architecture, Design, Contemporary Art and Cinema both in theory and practice. Through architecture and art, the MAS WEEK aims to strengthen the citizen's sense of belonging to the city, trigger links with the surrounding environment and strengthen the sense of identity in an inclusive, supportive and sustainable way. The target groups are students of all levels; the unemployed or part-time workers; professionals; families or established workers, pensioners. MAS WEEK wants to identify the role of political, cultural, historical and social impact of architecture and the arts in our lives and in the world we live in. It wants to promote the knowledge and diffusion of new artistic trends and create a debate between artists and the public. Its aim is to urge institutions, research centers, universities, local businesses and citizens to build and strengthen a stable "network" capable of promoting new and sustainable economic development. Whitin this framework took place the MAS_TARANTO INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP 2024 Mediterranean Living in the Contemporary City; The theme of this edition is the analysis and study of the urban spaces of the "Borgo Umbertino" of the City of Taranto, for the role they play in contributing to the improvement of the quality of life and experiences of people who live or visit the city. The output of the study has been the co-design and self-construction of urban spaces where it is possible to meet, play, plan events and activities. The projects have demonstrated how, through creativity and outside of market logic, the problems of urban spaces can be solved both from a formal and social point of view, making them sustainable in an economic and ecological way.
Architecture
Art
Inclusive spaces
Cultural innovation
Urban sustainability
Through urban, cultural and social regeneration MAS WEEK intends to provide a potential tool to guide the transformations of cities towards environmental sustainability and a guide in the co-construction of sustainable city with the repercussions that such processes trigger on the entire urban and social system. The territory of Taranto is experiencing a particular historical moment from different points of view: social, economic, cultural and environmental. This must be read in the light of recent events that see the transformation of the city from pre-industrial to post-industrial. Taranto was the largest Italian steel producer (the largest in Europe for much of the twentieth century) and it still is one of the most polluted cities in Italy. Among the key objectives of MAS WEEK there is that of breaking the limits of a discussion that places the steel industry at the center, trying to build a stringent context that circumscribes and limits the industrial area, mentally and physically, changing the reference system and transforming the critical issues of the city into potential. One of these tools is MAS_TARANTO INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP (2024’s title was “Mediterranean Living in the Contemporary City). During the workshop we have imagined a new dimension of sustainable living, in which the citizens of Taranto were encouraged to describe the spaces in which they live. During the five days of the workshop, participants realized projects aimed at creating urban spaces for living together. Internationally renowned architects guided participants in the co-design and self-construction of sustainable and innovative urban furniture, demonstrating how it is possible to reconcile creativity and sustainability outside the logic of market The workshop promoted an integrated and sustainable vision of Mediterranean living, demonstrating that it is possible to reconcile innovation and tradition in sustainable way to improve urban experiences.
MAS WEEK aims to shine a spotlight on the arts, raising the cultural profile of the city of Taranto and thus becoming a true cultural activator that educates about beauty and creates connections between beauty, sustainability and inclusion, which is why design, art, photography, music, cinema and artistic performances have had a special space with the creation of various exhibitions and cultural activities spread throughout the city. In this context, the project can be considered exemplary because people have been able to participate to free events dedicated to the arts also living and rediscovering various places in the city. In fact, thanks to the numerous partnerships with the main local stakeholders, there have been numerous events spread throughout the territory and free of charge. For example, thanks to an important collaboration between the Festival and the Archaeological Museum of Taranto (MarTa), it was possible to visit for free the exhibition of Paolo Troilo “In the Name of the Mothers”, an unpublished work composed of eight tapestries dedicated to the maternal figure. Participatory Art was also protagonist with “Oltre la Mappa” by Mimmo Martorelli curated by Sgroi and CTE CALLIOPE, a project that combines the artistic, social and educational dimensions, with the aim of forming aware citizens on issues of collective interest. The live performance “Concept Book. Acqua” by Di Dio e Rondinelli, a concept book between music and literature, a set of stories with Electronic, Ambient and Post-Rock sounds. The WEEK was also enriched by the other exhibitions organized for instance by Soprintendenza Nazionale per il Patrimonio Culturale Subacqueo and by Arsenale Militare Marittimo di Taranto; Cinema was also addressed with a focus on the relationship between cinema and architecture and a meeting with director and actor Edoardo Leo on his lates film “Non sono quello che sono” a re-reading of Shakespeare's Othello. Space was given also to photography and design.
During the MAS WEEK there has been numerous community activities, most of them were open air and we made sure there were no architectural barriers and that all the activities were free of charge. Our aim was to enhancing diversity and ensuring all type of accessibility in order to fight against inequalities that afflict Italy which are also based on gender, generation, and territory. That is why we tried to open experiences on the arts to a larger number of people and we had been looking for a new target which is not accustomed to consuming culture in Taranto. In order to do that we focused on social workshops and free meetings open to the public, some of which took place before the Festival. We organized these events in order to animate and involve citizens in co-designing the various activities. The workshops specifically addressed the following themes: Art, Cinema, Architecture and Design. Through these workshops we made available an educational tool for schools; we created a fertile and active social and entrepreneurial network of professionals from various sectors; we created a participatory and proactive place for discussion, exchange of ideas and creation of projects for the territory. We create the chance to work in a collaborative and multidisciplinary way. Many are the practical examples that came out of this experience: SKETCHES. Research, write, draw: rediscovering our city (Crest with the students of Aristosseno); JONIAN KIDS. The dolphins of Taranto between Legend and Reality. (Euro-Mediterranean Center of the Sea and Cetaceans Ketos with kids from 5 to 12 years old). CONCERTO Quartetto. (State Conservatory of Music of Taranto"Giovanni Paisiello").The MAS WEEK intends to enhance “pure” cultural innovation, that is related to art and creativity with the intent of encouraging contamination and the processes of enjoying art in a “widespread” way, also in locations and contexts not necessarily intended for art in order to enhance underused spaces.
The project aims to actively involve people in a creative process, and in starting a discourse on design, arts and sustainable architecture with them. These paths are also made to open up possibilities and to discover inclinations and talents among the younger. The involvement of the community starts with the strengthening of the stable networks that we created with the partners of the project representing different instances of the reference territorial community with a multi-stakeholder approach. Thanks to the numerous public and private partners (no profit organizations, Schools, Companies, Municipality of Taranto, ect) we had the chance to promote the activity of co-design among their circuits. A series of participatory involvement meetings have been made with Associations, Institutions, Schools, Social and Cultural Associations, interested in the initiative and that have embraced cooperation. Students from primary and secondary schools, university students, young professionals, citizens, volunteers have also been mobilized. Attention has also been paid to including young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to work in groups and engage in activities for the improvement of the territory. All the actors of the co-design have also been directly involved in the activities.The methodological choice finds its raison d'être in the idea that enhancing complementarity and encouraging reciprocity produces better, more lasting results and truly encourages active involvement, creating a process of osmosis.The methodology for involving the community of reference of the project is based on the following conceptual Items: - Participation - Sharing – Reappropriation. Much importance is also given to the tradition, identity and culture of the territory. Much importance is also given to the tradition, identity and culture of the territory. by highlighting the excellence of the territory, encouraging employment and improving the quality of life.
The innovative core of the project is that is made by the citizens and for the citizens of Taranto, in fact the events scheduled have also been developed thanks to the collaboration of the network of partners, which includes cultural and academic institutions, associations, organisations, foundations, research centres, public bodies that have actively participated in the following activities, organisation of Talks, organisation of exhibitions, provision of locations, provision of equipment, organisation of concerts.Thi can trigger a process by which we wish to encourage institutions, research centres, universities, local businesses and citizens to build and strengthen a stable "network" capable of promoting new and sustainable economic development by highlighting the excellence of the territory, encouraging employment and improving the quality of life overall. 2024's Edition saw the participation of the following partners: Soprintendenza Nazionale per il Patrimonio Culturale Subacqueo, MArTa – Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Taranto, ANCE Taranto, Confindustria Taranto, Autorità di Sistema Portuale del Mar Ionio - Porto di Taranto, Camera di Commercio di Brindisi e Taranto, CALLIOPE, ADI – Associazione per il Disegno Industriale, Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Giovanni Paisiello" di Taranto, INU – Istituto Nazionale di Urbanistica, Soroptimist Club Taranto, CREST, Comando Interregionale Marittimo Sud, Orizzonte cultura 2.0, Jonian Dolphin Conservation, ICQ Modi, Finindustria, Green 2030, Calke, Macob, Rib, Cardone & Associati, Vibrotek. With the technical partnership of: Taranto Maritime Military Arsenal, Ford Appiastore, Producers of Manduria, Ninfole, Apulia Musicarte, Officine Maremosso, Edelweiss Nursery, Epops. Official media partners of the event: Agenzia CULT, Archiportale, La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. Educational Institutions: Calo, Pitagora, Aristosseno, Cabrini, Maria Pia, Plateja, Martellotta. For more details please see full programme attached.
The disciplines and knowledge fields reflected in the project were: Architecture, Design, Contemporary Art and Cinema. The idea was that experience of art, architecture, cinema and design makes people move in a new way, can change point of views on things and events, gives life a sense of adventure and wonder, and helps to successfully enhance intellectual, emotional and affective resources. It also develops the relationship between individuals, brings people together and let them do things together and they can discuss and influence one another. It is possible to learn to question yourself, to opening up dialogue and comparison with others, create, reflect, imagine and tell. Experiencing art and creativity together people had the chance to think about a new future for Taranto, they had the chance to imagine it. Many representatives of the field of interest had a chance to interact with one another adding value to the process of promoting the experience of beauty for the participants. For example film expert and architects were involved in the production of short videos on Taranto (realised by the student of the educational institutions involved, you can see them attached), in a climate of enthusiasm, but also of critical and constructive reflection that saw the participants practicing with the shooting techniques and experimenting with writing a small screenplay, alternating theoretical insights and practical activities during which they put themselves to the test, addressing the issue of urban, but also social and cultural regeneration of the city to develop ideas and projects that lead to "returning" constructive factors to the territory also by pointing out it’s negative aspects.
The project is a demonstration laboratory of sustainable social and cultural innovation and territorial regeneration, an open space where the community, institutions and no profit associations experiment with innovative solutions for making life in the city of Taranto a better life. Through the creation of spaces dedicated to discussion, co-working, support and awareness-raising, MAS WEEK aims to accelerate sustainable growth, social development, new entrepreneurship and also employment. The innovative character of the project lays in the way it wants to achieve cultural, social and urban regeneration of the city, by literally creating connection among the overall city network and becoming a place of innovation. It has become, through the year a privileged place created to foster a dialogue that put the human at the center. It fosters the neutral exchange of information between different actors who normally do not frequent the same places and do not interconnect, in order to increase collaborative relationships. It pursues a clear, precise and shared mission focused on strategic issues for the city: Territorial Regeneration through arts and culture; it is rooted in the reference ecosystem of the Ionian City. All this ultimately allow the transfer of knowledge; accompany the diffusion and application of ideas and solutions within a growing number of partners. It also design and develop new models of social economy for the absorption/diffusion of innovations and social innovation construction sites through collaborative and demonstrative models; Also hybridize profit with non-profit create the conditions for collaborative forms of innovation between companies, associations, consolidated institutions.
The methodology developed by MAS WEEK is centered on the major axe of Inclusive and participatory governance from the early stages, with precise definition of co-design methods with project partners. From a social point of view, the project aims to build a permanent community that can guarantee the continuity of actions to regain a sense of belonging. Also, through the network of partners MAS WEEK enjoys a network of relationships at a national and international level. The methodology adopted promote and support the birth of new start-ups on the themes of Architecture, Design, Cinema, Art. The method stimulates the potential of individuals and teams and the growth of entrepreneurial and professional ideas through innovative methodologies such as workshop activities, and for the aggregation of skills, in which to develop research on the themes of architecture, design (graphics, fashion, furniture, etc.), contemporary art, cinema. All is thought in an inclusive, sustainable and beautiful way. The project is an "open" community of creative minds looking to the future. It is a physical and virtual space where the skills of different sectors meet to experiment with innovative projects in both traditional and cutting-edge sectors. It is here that the main protagonists come together to foster connections between knowledge, skills and also new entrepreneurship. The project's community engagement methodology is based on the following conceptual items: - Participation - Sharing - Reappropriation. Expected Result. Promote participation processes to strengthen territorial regeneration processes in terms of social innovation Promote the Transfer of Knowledge in the Community, Activate new projects.
The inclusive methodology developed by MAS WEEK will allow the replicability of this model in other territorial and thematic contexts, as the model of innovation space proposed will give concrete form to initiatives coming from any community with the aim of supporting their growth, the innovation space will bring together profit and non-profit logics, will give concrete form to initiatives coming from the community, supporting their growth and presentation to institutional actors, who in some cases will be able to make them their own, finance them, co-design them, make them sustainable and replicate them on a larger scale; One of the expected results of the project is the experimentation of a virtuous model of valorization and development replicable at regional and national level, to generate and support socialization processes through the valorization of the community's heritage of skills and experiences. The project, promoting actions in collaboration with other subjects, can be replicate to other context where to share different activities, disciplines or knowledge of theme and imagine their synergic development. Furthermore, a characterizing and therefore transferable element is represented by the activities that will be characterized by strong social innovation, the creation of a new model of environmental development that makes communities protagonists and provides new solutions to respond to their needs in terms of use, protection, valorization of the territory and urban regeneration.
The global challenge is to seek the right balance between social, environmental and economic sustainability. The more the world integrates and becomes global, the more it is necessary to preserve local identities. The relationship between man and environment, be it survival or development, is one of the great themes of our time. The contrast between human action and conservation, between conservation and valorization of resources are the common ground thinking and they provide young people and all communities, a set of tools for understanding and deep thinking on environmental and social issues. After taking into consideration global challenges we started observing the context in which the project was developed and the uniqueness of the reference community, its needs and the levels of transformation. Careful research was done on similar case studies at a international level, on those cities that had sought and achieved a paradigm shift between industrial city and cultural city, and we came to the conclusion that the challenges had to be faced starting from the involvement of the community as it is necessary to actively involve people, to listen to their experiences, opinions and concerns and understand what the effective solutions could be to obtain if you want them to become the protagonists of the project.
MAS WEEK 2024 has achieved extraordinary results in terms of impact on the community reaching the final goal of regaining the citizen's sense of belonging with the city. Some data. Educational initiatives aimed at students of all levels with active involvement of participants (905 participants): (Agorà Ragazzi, 600 students); Socialization workshops on Architecture, cinema, art, design (240 students ranging from 10 to 18 years old); 50 students coming from Politecnico di Bari - Università degli Studi della Basilicata - Università degli Studi Chieti/Pescara attending the MAS_TARANTO INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP 2024 Mediterranean Living in the Contemporary City; 11 students/volunteers from secondary schools involved in PCTO activities; 4 volunteers from the ITS Tourism – Free public events (6,000 participants):conferences and meetings focused on architecture, urban planning and city projects; Master Classes the themes of contemporary art and Architecture; Films on Cinema and Architecture accompanied by debates and discussions with professionals in the two disciplines, meeting with director and actor Edoardo Leo; Contemporary art, Design and Photographic Exhibitions; Live performances: Live music and literary reading performance; Urban Sketches. Research, write, draw: rediscovering our city; The dolphins of Taranto between Legend and Reality; Concerto Conservatorio; 7 Educational Institution were involved (ITES Pitagora, IPS Cabrini, Liceo V. Calò, Liceo Aristoxenus, Istituto Maria Pia, Istituto Comprensivo Martellotta, Istituto Plateja); 4 internationally renowned architectural firms (MVRDV, Peluffo & Partner, MUA, Miralles Tagliabue MBT). More than 100 institutional presences (entrepreneurs, politicians, administrators, university professors, artists, experts, international guests) - 40 partnerships - 8 supporting subjects - 1 main media partner (Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno) - 2 thematic media partners (Agcult, Archiportale) - 100 articles in magazines, newspapers and blogs.
