24/05/2019
Dear friends dark time has come 🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑, we waited till the very last minute to announce this as even ourselves can’t yet believe this is happening. Esperienza Pepe is in danger of coming to a sudden conclusion.
As you know, the experimentation upon the reuse of the former Caserma Pepe as we know it began in 2016 with first public concession for a temporary use to our association Biennale Urbana. We found the place in a disgraceful condition of decline after 📅 seventeen years of neglect by the army and Italian institutions.
Across the appointments year by year by Agenzia del Demanio (Italian Public Property Agency) we have transformed the space by taking care of its green and resetting of its electrical and water supply.
From 2017 we began to restore the Caserma’s interiors on the ground floor which were since then not practicable and, together with local associations, Universities from every corner of the world and thanks to the collaboration of a number of Biennale’s pavilions and their curators, artist and collectives we created a space open to everyone: children, creatives and locals could finally use our facilities such as the half pipe and use our bicycle workshop.
Finally in 2018 Caserma pepe became a solid reality and it was recognised as the second case in Italy of “Temporary Use” space promoted by a program started by Agenzia del Demanio. 2018 is also the year in which the curators from the Biennale Architecture’s French Pavillion picked up our regeneration process and wanted to collaborate with it by presenting it at the Pavillion as an example of “infinite places”, “Lieux infinits”. These are spaces and organisations that puts at the centre of its objectives urban regeneration throughout the implementation and development of cultural activities. While the project was presented at the Giardini’s French Pavillion, Esperienza Pepe has hosted the French 10 lieux infitis’ programs creating a synergy that mutuallty strengthened the projects.
Despute the past 4 years, the overall 18 months of work and the rightful public concession by the Italian Public Property Agency, our efforts were (this year) not enough and things are sadly changing.
The application for the public concession for the temporary use of the Caserma Pepe, which we have waited since October 2018 in order to be prepared in time, was published on the 17th of April 2019.
In the meanwhile we have prepared a programme of events so that we could be ready in case we were successful in our application and start working immediately. Only on Monday the 20th of May the envelopes with the proposals were opened.
The sole terms for the application were time and money based, maximum score for the shorter period of application (6 months was the minimum) and of course best economical offer.
The announcement this time did not include any evaluation on the expertise of the associations competing, no consideration in regards of the cultural program proposed by the applicants, moreover, there had not been any dialogue with the public administration regarding our real experience in “Temporary Use” neither a debate on the long term redevelopment of the structure!
No value was given to our core achievements:
15000 visitors from over 25 different countries + 30 Universities, +25 collectives, artists in residency and 150 volunteers involved during the 30 shows and parties, 15 open-air screenings, + 10 radio program transmissions + 12 meetings/round tables + 12 international workshops + 4 art exhibitions + 25 artwork produced (O commissioned?) at the Caserma.
As you know Universities and knowledge transformation of spaces have been central in out regeneration experience !
In addition to the different Italian and Venetian academies such as IUAV with its Master in Moving Images Arts and our neighbours the EIUC campus for Human Rights and the Siracusa students with their MADE Program of Architecture we have created an network working along with Zurich’s Swiss Federal Institute of Technology EHT, the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, the Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Arts in Belgium and the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Neatherlands passing through the Academy of Fine Arts and Univeristy of Applied Arts in Wien – die Angenwandte.
We have reached out to the Baltic academic world, from the Gothenburg’s HDK – School of Design and Craft to Stockholm’s Royal Academy of Arts KKH, Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts and Tamperes faculty of Architecture. Beyond Europe we have been hosting the University of Tsukuba (Japan), the University of Queensland - Brisbane (Australia) and Tel-Aviv (Israel).
Check out pictures and the recent press articles from the past three days and have your opinion, we’ll talk soon!!!
Andrea Bortolotto Guillaume Granjon, Bravo, Minh Tuan Vu, Francesca Hawker, Aloyse Lucas, Emma Feldhandler, Veronica Sereda, Thomas Dnhr, Rosaura Trejo Hernández, Nicola Wündsch, Adèle Lemoine, Alice Feld, Phoebe Miller, Antonia Beard,
Amaury Veillard, Marc-Antoine Gatelet, Luigi Bisogno, Christopher de Sadeleer, Davide Metrocubo Tagliabue, Furio Ganz, Valeria Segna, Alex Morandin, Giovanni Dinello, Paolo Piaser, Nuovo Utente, Motsa Mai Tomassini Mark A. Fischer, Aline Elli Pickh, Asya Zuyeva, Cloé Wilkie, Anne-Laure Hervagault, Marion Cousquer, Néla Mariani, Lara M M Tekovic, Lukas Vielhauer, Sofia Genero, Sandra Mirka, Jacky Dravy, Salomon Tyler, Siam Briand Ra******rg, Maca Troscé, Siim Tanel Tõnisson Karolin Kaup, Andrea Marrodan Hernandez
WE ADD A TRANSLATION OF A TXT FROM VENICE DAILY NEWSPAPER from which you will find the Italian version from a pics posted below...
"THE MAYOR SEEKS CLARITY ON THE FUTURE OF THE CASERMA PEPE"
The convocation of an advisory committee is requested to understand the intentions of Venice Municipality and the touristic enterprise of Fispmed who may be granted the caserma in concession.
The affair of the ex-caserma Pepe and its provisional assignment from the Agency of Demanio to Fispmed (International Federation for the Sustainable Development and fight against poverty in the Mediterranean Black Sea), the non-profit association headed by the local dependent Roberto Russo of the Assessors of Public Work inside Venice Municipality, has also become a political case.
Regarding precisely this matter, yesterday a query was delivered to the Mayor’s office by the local advisors of the ‘Gruppo Misto’ O. S. and R. S. It is clear at this point that the projects of both Fispmed and Venice Municipality, who should acquire the propriety of the property from Demanio (the State), and the so-called plan of valuation of the entire complex, will be discussed by the advisory commission.
The query refers to the affairs published by this newspaper in recent days and to the declaration of the vice Mayor and assessor of heritage L. C. about the intention of the Municipality to acquire the Pepe, but refers also to the position of the advisor of the Lista Brugnano (the mayor of Venice) M. C., who deems the decision of Demanio - to grant the caserma to Fispmed for a period of just 6 months - rather unusual. No comment is offered for now on the part of R. R. and his association. “In short”, write O. S. and R. S, “it may be deduced that there are great concerns and the necessity of more in depth information, most significantly regarding the component majority reached on the goals of the employment of the structure, the duration of the concession and of its use”.
It may be recalled that Fispmed has already presented within the plan of interventions of the Municipality a project that foresaw the permanent management of the Caserma within a wider project of a metropolitan eco-museum. However, scrolling through the site of the Onlus, a slightly different project is discovered: more gastro-tourism than environmentalism, with the possible creation of a chef-school, complete with a restaurant and lodging with rooms, open to tourists as well as those attending courses in a fitness space.
“Upon reading cited articles and from the declaration of other public administrators - add the councillors from the Gruppo Misto - the factors that conjure doubts regarding the lack of transparency about the real objectives, scope and timeframe of the Onlus’s project become evident”. Moreover, they request an evaluation of the appropriateness of granting the concession to Russo, in light of his role as a local councillor. “The mayor is requested to summon an urgent commission, considering the great embarrassment generated as a consequence of the issues reported above”.
Clarification is required as to which may be the real objectives of Venice Municipality, also since Demanio had seemed ready to grant the propriety of the property to Venice Municipality. Also to explain to all the dependents from the municipality that municipal employees, staff otherwise of sensitive sectors, are likely subject to a conflict of interests in this type of situation. It must also be considered that the same Venice Municipality has, through a directional role, functions regarding the granting of concessions, tax, assignment, authorization, as it sanctions the various normative of law”
It remains for the comune to provide clarity on its plans and on the future of the ex caserma Pepe !
