Events

Gae Aulenti[1] and Milan.  

In the photo: ‘Arriving at the seaside’ (taken from ‘Two women run on the beach’ by Picasso, 1922) is Gae Aulenti’s first professional achievement, as she was rewarded in 1964 at the ‘XIII Triennale’ of Milan.

And finally an exhibition[2] in Milan about Gae Aulenti, excellent adopted daughter of this city which she lived willingly in, and honouring it greatly. Today the square that bears her name is the new district of a traditional and central neighbourhood which now has to refer to it : right next, is Piazzale Cadorna redefined by ‘Gae’ in 2000 with the new facade of the Northern Railways Station, and just beyond the ‘Palazzo of Triennale’ which Gae Aulenti has dealt with since 1951 when, still a student at the Polytechnic of Milan, she was already collaborating in the preparation of the Architecture students’ exhibition, and then in 1994 inventing the Drawing Gallery.

In fact, the exhibition opens with her first professional achievement, and precisely at the XIII Triennale of 1964 that rewards Gae Aulenti’s installation, named ‘Arriving at the seaside’ for the room dedicated to Free time, and taken from a polemical Picasso framework of 1922, ‘Two women run on the beach’. ‘Gae’ – as everyone called her - is well aware of a certain distrust[3] that surrounds her, and takes that criticism by Picasso to women, but makes it an opportunity for a costant reflection along her professional path that began as simple graphic designer for ‘Olivetti’ industries at Ivrea. However is at the MOMA[4] of New York in 1972, with the setting she presented at the exposition ‘Italy : the new domestic landscape’ that Gae Aulenti breaks away from the abstractions[5] of Modernism that she calls ‘fiction’[6] to instead indicate its critical issues

“… the hope of reality, which is the only possible key by which to interpret the object, for it serves to eliminate the ambiguities, contradictions, discords, and distortions of our chronicle. The objects with which we generally come into contact are very numerous indeed, they are mostly new, but also precarious and incostant, and at least some of them are doomed to rapid disappearance; some have been seen to appear with possible uses which have up to now never been exploited: they distort behavior, they unleash anxieties and hypnoses, are ready to cause harm to nervous systems and cause casualties in the realm of intellectual adjustment, even criminality.” [7]

Maintaining continuity while avoiding the fractures that the post-war period seemed to forcely demand through the modernist Functionalism, attracts the title of ‘Neo Liberty’ and severe criticism by Bruno Zevi[8] and Reyner Banham[9] to this orientation. But she knows how to gather clients which are increasingly complex and varied, and mainly respectful of her work. Thus, many objects emerge from her atelier, city buildings wherever they are located, houses – first of friends, and then of friends of friends – but above all pieces of cities, showrooms, factories, even costumes and theater scenes, projects already discarded by her senior colleagues which she collects and works on without pain.

“I find that the visitor problem is very little analyzed. I believe that a museum is a place of high pedagogy, where the act of visiting represents real work, both for school children and for specialists. Art doesn’t leave you at peace, doesn’t satisfy. In my opinion, a museum is a provocateur of questions.” [10]

“What are the coordinates of our cities ? What functions constitute the nervous and lymphatic systems, the support of a modern city ?” [11], Gae Aulenti writes in her notes of 1973 after a travel to India.

“The house, the single residential cell… then becomes the place of a family that has now overcome the narrow and obscurantist sense of its own closure, becomes the place of the gained autonomy of young people. So we can describe a cell that can form and reform with maximum flexibility, with maximum interchangeability and maximum possibility of use that is, a space that may or may not be divisible by the inhabitants themselves, by means of elements that can form closed or semi-open spaces, wardrobes or beds, support surfaces for eating or for studyng, shelves for books or for other things. This space is entirely habitable, there are no entrances and little entrances, corridors, ante-rooms and ante-bathrooms, and all those spaces codified by an authoritative vision of family relationships…”[12]

There is investment and hard work to ensure that a space – our own space indeed – presents itself as open and social, but also strong and defended. If even an utopy is thinking of a possible future, however we prefer this thinking to the game. The game is just the narration of a project that doesn’t exist and that in any case leads to the anguish of knowing that it twill not be possible.

The only chance is therefore discovering reality, because it is wealth, fruitfulness, sweet and universal strength.” [13] ‘The yielding house’ by Gae Aulenti is a goal achieved without a lighthearted running and without naivety, not phallic, absolutely new.

Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – September 22, 2024

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[1] Gae Aulenti (1927-2012) designed, cared and realized a great number of works, both of architecture and design and in numerous cities : from Milan to Paris, to Seville and Barcelona, to Venice, Florence, Rome, Tokyo, Palermo, San Francisco and elsewhere. Among the major recognitions she received the Imperial Prize at Tokyo in 1991, and the golden Medal to the Career in 2012.

[2] ‘Gae Aulenti (1927 – 2012)’, at the ‘Triennale di Milano’ 2024, May 22nd – 2025 January 12th. In collaboration with the ‘Archivio Gae Aulenti’.

[3] ‘L’architettura è un mestiere da uomini ma ho sempre fatto finta di nulla’ – Corriere della Sera, 21 febbraio 2011.

[4] ‘The Museum of Modern Art’ – MOMA, 11 West 53 Street, New York.

[5] ‘Fare architettura’, pp. 9-11 in ‘Gae Aulenti. Vedere molto, immaginare molto’, Collana ‘Humana Civilitas’ Edizioni di Comunità Srl 2024.

[6] ‘La scoperta della realtà’, pp. 20-21 in ‘Gae Aulenti. Vedere molto, immaginare molto’, Collana ‘Humana Civilitas’ Edizioni di Comunità Srl 2024.

[7] Taken from: ‘Release no.35 - House environment’, Designer: Gae Aulenti, Patron: ANIC Lanerossi, Producer: Kartell in ‘Italy: the new domestic landscape’ – Director: Emilio Ambasz, May 26th – September 11st, 1972 MOMA New York.

[8] ‘L’andropausa degli architetti moderni italiani’, B. Zevi in ‘Editoriali di architettura’ Einaudi 1979.

[9] ‘Neo Liberty – The Italian retreat from moderne architecture’, R. Banham in ‘Architectural Review’ Londra 1959.

[10] ‘Cinque musei’, p.55 in ‘Gae Aulenti. Vedere molto, immaginare molto’, Collana ‘Humana Civilitas’ Edizioni di Comunità Srl 2024.

[11] ‘La casa arrendevole’, p. 35  in ‘Gae Aulenti. Vedere molto, immaginare molto’, Collana ‘Humana Civilitas’ Edizioni di Comunità Srl 2024.

[12] ‘La casa arrendevole’, pp. 36-37 in ‘Gae Aulenti. Vedere molto, immaginare molto’, Collana ‘Humana Civilitas’ Edizioni di Comunità Srl 2024..

[13] ‘La scoperta della realtà’, p. 25 in ‘Gae Aulenti. Vedere molto, immaginare molto’, Collana ‘Humana Civilitas’ Edizioni di Comunità Srl 2024.

The virtue of a constitutional psychological incompetence.”

‘Mes gentils animaux’ is the title of the book for children aged four to six, from which the above page has been taken. (‘Le Livre Club’ Edit. LLC Caramel 2004, Nimes / France).

Books to work on/ 6.

“The reduction of psychology to generically animal psychology is nowadays a general conclusion, held back just out of prudence and residual modesty, or of competition which is not opposition, of computer psychology, called cognitivism… Science is what it is by ‘virtue’ of its constitutional psychological incompetence.”[1]

Animals intrigue children because they are so different from humans, yet they often live with them.

But it is not worth burdening the curiosity, which children can still have at their disposal, of Theories which, as educational, are in the hands of adults and with the prerogative of exempting them from being the subject of questions that lead to a completely legitimate judgement by a child.

One thing is reactive formation that threatens ones’ thinking with punishment once repressed, another thing is the unconscious that legitimately suggests the question and, sanctioning, judges.

Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – July 12, 2024

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[1] Cited from: ‘Una psicologia amica’, by Giacomo B. Contri pp. 15-16 in ‘La Città dei malati’, Maria Antonietta Aliverti, Raffaella Colombo, Giacomo B. Contri, Maria Delia Contri, Marina Massimi, Giorgio Moretti – SIC Edizioni 1994

'Tutorsalus.net' is now presented as an authorized periodical[1] of a professional nature, welcoming the entrepreneurial initiative[2] of that Journalism to which Freud dedicated himself throughout the course of all his work.

Does turning to Antigone[3] today, as a patient and anti-economic companion, sound remote ?  

However her : “I act for love” still risks, at least initially, confusing us with that passionate opposition  to a ‘juridical’ civilization which doesn’t defend us until we cross it : the heart to think for yourself, who knows something about this.

It’s difficult to escape the insistence of Antigone, who so often still comes looking for ‘I’, a civilian inhabitant and worker indeed but not fully aware of the profit he, or she, produces and that is also socially affected like a light and precious fabric, and not only to those who are close to us : because Antigone fears the recognizability of her action – that can instead slide onto the goals with equally deceptive sublimity and she juggles in the mists she doesn’t like to escape from, hating the work she even acknowledges the richness.

It’s her body, her mistreated body even in the most meticulous applications, that faithfully supports a sincere motion that leaves no doubt and that without uncertainty reveals her purpose about which she remains reticent with malice, because laziness seduces and makes proselytes, it’s massive indeed!

Quick theft with desterity, here is Antigone’s purpose as she, lying, complains having nothing… And she stands, still in front of the mirror, as if she didn’t notice : what makes her ultimately and, provocatively, even moving.

That ‘deathly’ jouissance that Jacques Lacan reported just after Freud, does not satisfy in fact : but Antigone demands it, holding in hatred the work that others produce without any possibility of a real transfer. 'Quelle tristesse pour Antigone...!'

Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – April 14, 2019

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Original painting by Gianni Russomando.[4]

[1] 'TutorSalus.net', online magazine of Freudian journalism, registered in the Court of Milan, n°4731/2019 of April 10th, 2019 – Director : Marina Bilotta.

[2] 'THINK !', by Giacomo B.Contri www.giacomocontri.it is the first online newspaper of Freudian journalism.

[3] The editorial takes up 'Quid amor ? Quid ius ?', speech by Giacomo B.Contri presented at the ‘Colloquio Università di Patti’/ Messina, November 16th 2018 and reported on www.giacomocontri.it

[4] Gianni Russomando was born in Vercelli (1956), graduated at the ‘Istituto di Belle Arti di Vercelli’ : he describes himself as an ‘amanuense’ (medieval hand-painter) and far from expositions and competitions.

How do you prepare yourself to for a critical spirit?

In the photo, gardens at the ‘Università Bocconi’ of Milan, where ‘NEXT Milan Forum’ 2024 helded on last March 18 and 19.[1]

Flash on a recent, complex and rightly ambitious event, intended to involve young people in citizenship, as a privileged area for the implementation of favourable and enriching projects : AI and business, sustainability and the reconstruction of prosperity beyond the Crises, disabilities and wounds from wars, cooperation and security were the topics touched on, starting from thinking over Europe. Analyses, reports, interventions presented by world-class speakers and not only from Europe, have identified the indispensable crossroads - and perceived first and foremost individually - between cost and investment : to develop a progressive awareness of this crossroads and the possible initiatives allows us to empower humans, discouraging deviant manipulations.

Who would then guess that two young athletes, with their very personal unexpected recovery, represented perhaps the most convincing goal of an event designed for Universities ?

Be aware of an experience that you would like to remove, but that leads inextinguishable marks on your body and mind : what could be more difficult, more provocative, more challenging in the life ? The absence of friends, that’s what there is : it is the response of those who - very young - only formally accept the category of ‘Paralympic Athlete’.

Mourning is allowed but not melancholy, is it ever possible ? In a strong experience of pain you have focused on someone who knew how to make himself, or herself, reliable[2] : it certainly wasn’t immediately possible but it is unreliability that constitutes a truly destabilizing trauma with unpredictable consequences.

How much courage does it take to say ‘mutilation’ about your own body?[3] Until another courage – rare indeed – which is that of recognizing as destabilizing your lying that you no longer love life, your wounded, damaged, violated body.

And pain also attracts social and generic empathy, pain can make you malleable to external surrogates, provided you betray the original alliance with your body : accustomed as they are to training over time and with work, these young athletes were not satisfied.

Furthermore, reconstruction is an investment to which resources - perhaps already committed - can be allocated with foresight, but whose effects are a safe, individual and social                   surplus, therefore very precious and crucial for the crossroads they entail between cost and investment.

The novelty of a, of any strong restart, opts first of all to discard the word ‘resilience’, as this doesn't concern one's own thinking, and instead collect everything that takes on a specific weight in the new life : there is no longer your solid reference group[4] and many fall, their image fades but those who are confirmed present come in to team up, even time suddenly and definitely takes on a conspicuous specific weight. Therefore ‘recovery’ is truly available to everyone but it’s not for everyone to 'team up’ rather than to ‘do group’ where no recovery lasts long.

How do you prepare yourself to for a critical spirit, when even University often doesn’t help ? This question, came from the audience, seemed destined to remain suspended but the answer came from an unexpected elsewhere – those athletes who, who knows why, climbed onto an ambitious University stage : an answer so subtle and light that it could even have been missed by those who were already moving away without cathartic resolution, and yet waiting after hours of patient listening.

Too ‘easy’ – another word that should be banned in any recovery - is waiting for an artificial intelligence able to replace us : decisions that are made more and more quickly may prove formally correct in the short term, but risk causing that delicate balances, such as political ones -  interconnected, global and therefore very close to us - then collapse.[5]

‘Emergency’ will perhaps regain the original sense of something-that-emerges because it wasn’t there before and now it is there[6], without arrogance and without pretension : something that needs to be studied – without academicism and also appointing new places – because ‘I care of it’, then out of budget.

Baton therefore offered to those who know team up.

Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – May 10, 2024

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[1] ‘NEXT Milan Forum’ 2024 - Empowering Future Leaders’ included an integration of different sections : the section ‘Get inspired’, in which world-class speakers provided insights and  analysis to grow awareness and positive change; the section ‘Make your voice heard’ in which the audience expressed its views and dialogued with the invited speakers; the section ‘Idea slam’ proposing a competition among the future selected leaders (20-35 years old) for new ideas to be shared with G7 leaders on key global challenges. (The event was organized under the patronage of ‘Regione Lombardia’ and the Municipality of Milan; co-hosts : ISPI ‘Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale’, ‘Università Bocconi’-Milano, OECD 'Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development', Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, KPMG Italia, Fondazione Cariplo).

[2] From the speech given by Martina Caironi, paralympic athlete.

[3] From the speech given by Simone Barlaam, paralympic athlete.

[4] Again from the speech given by Simone Barlaam, paralympic athlete.

[5] From the speech given by Peter Maurer president of the Board, Basel Institute on Governance; former president, International Committee of the Red Cross.

[6] From the speech given by Bo Viktor Nylund director, UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight