Cresce solo se sogna
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
Cresce solo se sognata is an urban revitalization and redevelopment project that starts from sharing narratives and memories to intertwine them with History. It is a collaborative and bottom-up process that leverages a sense of community and civic spirit. The project grew thanks to the collaboration of the residents of the area involved in the renovation, Porta Santi. The result of the project is the Cesena Cresce app, a tool to get to know and discover a part of the historic center of Cesena.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
The project Cresce solo se sognata activates a path of revitalization of the section of the historic center between Palazzo Guidi and Porta Santi (about 300 mt) of the city of Cesena. Desiring to create an instrument of knowledge, the project implements actions aimed at regenerating the territory by leveraging a sense of identity and belonging.
The project worked in two directions. The first concerned the creation of visual and graphic installations related to the theme of the door and the threshold. Since the project started in the midst of the pandemic, our desire was to transform into images the sense of community that characterizes this area, that allowed residents to feel less alone during moments of confinement. We thus involved 10 young Italian illustrators who interpreted and gave visual identity to dialect texts by Cesena poets. The art installations were placed in the street in March, where they will remain until June.
The second part of the project focuses on the activation of two multi-sensory paths (one for children and one dedicated to young people and adults): starting from Palazzo Guidi, using the Cesena Cresce app created specifically for the project and downloadable for free, it is possible to follow the landmarks of a road made up of words, images and sounds. A way to safely discover, with a smartphone and together with loved ones, the territory and the community: thanks to historical information, memories of residents, video tutorials and narratives, the app becomes a tool capable of involving and fascinating the user.
By exploring the area subject to intervention, it is possible to learn to appreciate its peculiarities: it will be everyone's concern to take care of it and enhance its potential and livability. Through shared management with the residents and the District Council, the organizers are confident that they have started a good practice of resilience that will persuade all citizens to take charge of the public heritage.
Key objectives for sustainability
The main purpose of the project revolved around the creation of an exploration and knowledge tool for the last portion of the historic center of Cesena. Looking at what surrounds us with new eyes is an excellent way to recover common goods and resources. One of the cornerstones of the project was to make sustainability an important element for taking charge of cultural and public heritage. In particular, the entire path dedicated to children focuses precisely on the issues of respect for the environment and conservation of resources: the reflection on how urban spaces are built, the careful usage of water, the promotion of alternative means of transport beside the car, are all elements that allow children to play with important and fundamental issues for our future. Supporting this part of the project was the Sustainability Education Center of Cesena (CEAS), which monitored the contents and recommended the correct communication for kids.
Furthermore, the goal that the Cesena Cresce app set itself is to promote slow tourism able to enhance local resources and community cultural energies: the app is the result of the work of illustrators, storytellers, writers and graphic designers who have combined creativity and ingenuity so that users can experience an open-air visit enjoying the beauty of the heritage of the city. In this sense, the spirit of sustainability of the project was also made explicit in the possibility of visiting and learning about places that are usually inaccessible: an example is the content dedicated to the Fracassi Museum, created specifically for the app; the museum, closed to the public due to lack of funds, is now accessible thanks to a video that tells information and details on the content and the luthier.
With the intention of revitalising the existing heritage, the project was also able to count on the support of the photographic archive of the Malatestiana Library: shots of the area from the mid-nineteenth century have been recovered.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Cresce solo se sognata has made visual communication and graphic suggestions its strengths. The graphics were curated by Nicolò Mingolini, graphic designer and illustrator who developed the image that well represented the theme of a call to which the project was presented in 2020. In fact, Cresce solo se sognata has been selected as one of the winners of Giovani per il territorio. La cultura che cura organized by the Patrimonio Culturale of the Emilia Romagna Region. Through the image of a sun that offers attention to small flowers on the ground, the visuals of the project tell a story of rebirth and care. In its early stages, the project has encouraged the residents of the area to take on this path of rebirth and revitalisation. They were involved in voting for a coat of arms and a flag that could create a sense of belonging to the township. The most voted one was printed and hung on the windows as a sign of shared attention for the common space.
In addition, Cresce solo se sognata involved 10 illustrators in the creation of as many illustrations, details of which were printed and placed on the main landmarks of the itinerary. The illustrators involved (under 30 years old) reinterpreted dialectal verses and poems by authors from Cesena and Romagna such as Walter Galli, Mariangela Gualtieri and many others: the poems tell stories of private and intimate life. The illustrators were able to create a representation of the verses with their own sign, giving life to impacting and emotionally strong images. The passenger that uses the Cesena Cresce app has the possibility to access the full illustrations and listen to the poems read by actors. The aim was to create a strong aesthetic impact in an area in slow decay, in which vacant shops and unlit windows are becoming the occasion for small acts of vandalism. Cesena Comics & Stories is convinced that through the sharing of beauty it is possible to give a turn to the involution that the area seems to go through.
Key objectives for inclusion
"There are also those who educate, without hiding the absurdity that is in the world, open to every development but trying to be frank to the other as to himself, dreaming of others as they are not now: everyone grows only if dreamed of.”
Danilo Dolci, sociologist and educator, thus defined the maximum potential of educational action, specifically, and of social action, in a broader sense. Cresce solo se sognata (It grows if you dream it) starts from the consideration that cities, just like people, grow only if you dream and imagine them. Collective thinking allows us to define the contours of what will be the social fabric of a place. Starting from this consideration, Cesena Comics & Stories has created a knowledge tool useful for foreign residents who live in Porta Santi and who have expressed the desire to know something more about the place they live in. Furthermore, the project, by collecting memories of older residents, has involved and activated the resources and energies of those who have lived in the neighborhood since the 40s, actively involving them thanks to moments of meeting, listening and recording.
The route along Corso Ubaldo Comandini was also designed to be used by people with walking difficulties or in a wheelchair. There are no architectural barriers.
With the aim of making this tool available to everyone, in the context of a democratic enjoyment of culture, the app was shared for free. Downloadable at no cost by urban explorers, it is available both for iOS and Android devices. The app was developed by a Cesena start-up, Mango Mobile Agency, which took care of the technical part in a continuous exchange with the content creators of Cesena Comics & Stories.
Results in relation to category
The cultural itineraries that Cresce solo se sognata has created, symbolically starts from Palazzo Guidi, a building of great historical importance (it hosted illustrious personalities including Napoleon) but not well preserved. Shortly after the start of the project, the Municipality of Cesena opened a call for the shared management of this building, with the aim of regenerating it. We strongly believe that the ferment favored by Cresce solo se sognata has contributed to this positive development.
However, the main result obtained concerned the movement of people who began to frequent the Porta Santi area to explore the installations and discover, through the app, historical and architectural contents. The arrival of visitors in this forgotten portion of the historic center is causing a social ferment and awakening of the community of residents who are more attentive to public goods by taking charge of their protection.
The great participation of the residents highlighted the need to continue working on the themes of sharing and respect for cultural heritage: together with the residents, Cesena Comics & Stories volunteers are reflecting on how to further nurture this reborn community spirit.
Cresce solo se sognata was a network project that involved cultural stakeholders of the city and the residents of the Porta Santi area.
The numbers of engagement:
- 124 residents
- 13 stakeholders (Patrimonio Culturale of the Emilia Romagna Region, Cesena Municipality, Barbablù Cultural Association, Centro Urbano District Council, Mango Mobile Agency, CEAS Cesena, Malatestiana Library, ERT - Emilia Romagna Teatro Foundation, Fondo Ambiente Italiano, Zangheri Photographic Archive, Cesena Archeological Group, Auser Cesena, Te ad chi sit e fiol?)
- more than 300 app downloads
How Citizens benefit
The project has activated a dense network of exchanges and relationships among the residents of Porta Santi. The community process took place in different ways: the first approach to elderly people was through telephone or the mediation of children and grandchildren. Face-to-face meetings followed to record over 70 memories, donated by 34 residents or former residents, aged between 21 and 89.
Similarly, the choice and vote of the coat of arms of Porta Santi took place by activating 82 residents who expressed their opinion on the symbol that would best identify the area. The choice fell on the architectural structure of the door overlooking a flower, a symbol of rebirth and cultural regeneration. The visuals, as well as the flag of Porta Santi, was curated by Nicolò Mingolini, a young illustrator from Cesena.
ERT - Emilia Romagna Teatro Foundation helped us in the involvement of residents: the actors of the stable company interpreted, read and recorded the memories we listened to during the meetings with the community. Memories and recordings can be listened to using the Cesena Cresce app which gathers the memory collection work carried out during the months of January and February 2021.
The project drew strength and energy from a community that was already listening and, in a sense, waiting for a change. The enthusiasm with which the Cesena Comics & Stories proposals were accepted made us understand that the time was ripe to try to lift the last portion of the historic center from its torpor. We leveraged the sense of belonging and civic pride of a community that historically has lived Corso Ubaldo Comandini and the city walls as a small township.
Cesena Comics & Stories ha the will to create new moments of aggregation for residents: cineforum and neighborhood dinners, as well as an urban trekking itinerary that allows one to get to know the gardens and internal courtyards of the historic buildings of Corso Comandini.
Innovative character
The main innovative characteristic of the project lies in the possibility of discovering the cultural and social resources of the Porta Santi area by accessing a multisensory technology, which allows different uses. Taking into account the difficult historical period that we have all gone through and from which we are struggling to get out, we found it necessary to create a tool that would give users the opportunity to feel close to the city even from afar. For this reason, it is possible to access a lot of content even from home. On the other hand, to encourage visits to the area, special content can be unlocked only in proximity to places of interest thanks to a technology that combines beacons and bluetooth. The project therefore initiated the redevelopment of an area of the historic center through the construction of a flexible and safe knowledge tool that can be used by adults and children.
Furthermore, another distinctive element of the project was that the revitalisation of the common heritage took place thanks to the support of the community of residents, in a process that was partly bottom-up. Cresce solo se sognata starts from the residents' desire to nurture a virtuous circle capable of making the Porta Santi area flourish again. In this sense, two collaborations that helped and supported the project were very important. The first, the one with Fondo Ambiente Italiano, allowed us to greater attention to the cultural heritage of Corso Comandini, offering the opportunity to access some spaces usually closed to the public. A second important collaboration was that with the Porta Santi residents' committee: a group of citizens who have been fighting for a long time to have their area off-limits to traffic. The project intercepted the needs and the desire for social and aesthetic regeneration of Porta Santi, welcoming and making its own the requests that the community had already brought to the attention of the Municipality of Cesena.
