After our workshop on Sunday afternoon (which we will report on tomorrow), we had a chance to enjoy the atmosphere of the Biennale on a night that organisers felt was the busiest yet.
I know Puglia. I have been visiting, and have even lived here, over the past 13 years. Before coming to the Biennale, I could not imagine that there would be such a great, high level of local engagement and to be honest, I never imagined such a quick turnaround. Let me explain…
Let’s say 10 years ago, when I came here, few people wanted to speak English or another language, nor could, and in my experience this continued up until 2 years ago. Bari had a difficult reputation. For these reasons, being here now and seeing how the city of Bari has developed, as well as how its inhabitants are experiencing the Biennale, is amazing. So many local people have been drawn in and are keen to see the work of these young artists. Sunday night, all venues at the Fiera del Levante were packed. I spoke with one of the coordinators of the Biennale who said, “we have seen 5,000 visitors and participants a day, it’s amazing. Everything is at the same place, it helps to access the huge amount of different artists from the Med area and Europe. What is wonderful is everyone can access culture without paying anything.” And there you have it.
-NM
Tagged as:
art, bjcem, italy, labforculture, mediterranean
LabforCulture is a partner initiative of the European Cultural Foundation. LabforCulture is grateful for the support provided by its funders.
