Milano Downtown/
Gratosoglio
Gratosoglio: without direction. A neighbourhood of Milan that risks losing itself amongst its own urban blight. A photographic piece taken from one broader research project on the Grande Milano.
Milan Dowtown is a research project based on five housing situtations under the confinements of the greater urban area around Milan, which has been neglected by the public administration. Now, after years of devolution and diffusion of resident land settlements, the objective is centralisation. Here the city, whilst celebrating its rebirth, takes away much needed investment from those zones furthest away from the main areas and acts un-interested by problematic situations that already exist in those areas, entrusting the government to deal with them.
This is the case of Gratosoglio and its buildings which have been left to degrade and deteriorate after many unfulfilled promises.
"These new intiatives have come down on us like meteorites. In Gratosoglio, residency has been granted to people who are sick and don't even come from this neighbourhood, residences for young couples will be dished out to some loser; students are fine though. Refugees without a fixed place of abode, boom! There's a care home, and a gypsy settlement as well. The things that have arrived over the last few years are these, they have nothing to do with the proposed developments of the quarter itself. But they affect the neighbourhood. It makes you wonder what improvements have actually been made?" A.Coppola
The work presented here is part of a bigger research project on the city of Milan which has led to the publication of the volume Milano Downtown (et al./edizioni, 2010) and an exhibition under the same title.
