This is not a bowling club: Bocciami, by Beatrice Catanzaro and Michele Fontana at Public Gardens in Via Palestro - Milan, 23 - 26 March 2006
From the 23rd to the 26th of March 2006, as part of the events organised for the Spring Festival, the public gardens in Via Palestro will be host to a public art project by Beatrice Catanzaro in collaboration with Michele Fontana, entitled Bocciami, that involves setting up a bowling club open to the public. “This is not a bowling club” is a huge red neon sign certain to catch the attention of passers-by in Via Palestro Milan. The sign stands over a bowls green with 3 lanes, and a tensile structure in transparent PVC, which covers the lanes and that
measures 15 x 30 metres. Access to the lanes is free for whoever wants to have a go – whether enthusiasts or just curious – with the help of the professionals and members of Milanese bowling clubs.
However, Beatrice Catanzaro and Michele Fontana stress that “This is not a bowling club” with evident reference to “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” by Magritte. The real subject of this project, entitled Bocciami, is indeed the city of Milan, revealed through the game of bowls. The intention of Bocciami, which is one of the various promotional initiatives for young artists sustained by the Sports and Youth Council of Milan, is to solicit active forms of adhesion in the public, to reveal alternative ways of reading and practising reality. By creating a space for gathering capable of cancelling out generational and cultural gaps, the project proposes a form of cohabitation between distance contexts, such as the world of bowls – in this day and age somewhat peripheral to contemporary Milan – with its tradition, its stories and its slow procedure, in the centre of such a frenetic and distracted city.
Bocciami also hosts the work Cinema Take Away by artist Alessandro Nassiri Tabibzadeh, which also aims to underscore the importance of cultural dialogue.
Venue: Public Gardens in Via Palestro (corner of Corso Venezia), Milan. Inauguration: Thursday 23rd March 18.00
www.bocciami.it

Questa non è una bocciofila: Bocciami, di Beatrice Catanzaro e Michele Fontana, ai Giardini di Via Palestro a Milano dal 23 al 26 marzo 2006>>>