Pop idol politics
Plus, small-town economics and Gio Ponti's modernism
Last Saturday, like every 1 May, the municipality of Rome organised a huge open air concert to celebrate International Workers' Day. This time, though, the proceedings were marred by controversy from the get-go. It all started when Fedez, the rapper and social media icon, informed the national broadcaster RAI, that he was planning to talk about politics during his set. Specifically Fedez wanted to speak out live on air against the homophobic comments of a select group of politicians in the right wing party, the Lega (one councillor recently stated that if he were to discover his son was gay he would “throw him in the ovens”). RAI could and should have given Fedez a green light to condemn this hateful language. Instead, for whatever reason, they commanded him to remain silent. Furious, the rapper, who has 12.5 million instagram followers, ignored the guidelines, performed his songs and made his statement anyway. On top of that he also decided to leak a recording of his interaction with the broadcaster who, as the Guardian reports, used all manner of intimidatory tactics to make their point. Fedez’s main goal here was to galvanise public support for a new bill that aims to provide greater legal protection for victims of homophobic attacks. The Lega happen to be its main opponents. Given this background, the fact that RAI saw fit to intervene and censor Fedez’s words raises serious questions both about the broadcaster’s organisational ethics and, just as worryingly, the politics that’s influencing them behind the scenes. This isn’t just a ‘culture war’ story, then. Democrats of all stripes should be concerned by the revelations.
Anyone looking for a general update about Italy’s electoral politics should go and read this piece by David Broder in The New Statesman, which provides a succinct overview of the rise and fall of the Five Star Movement (M5S). In case you’ve lost track, the M5S, currently Italy’s biggest party, is a self-professed ‘anti-establishment’ force which was founded in order to ‘clean up politics.’ They have now governed in three coalitions in as many years: one with the Lega, one with the centre-left PD, and they are currently propping up Draghi’s technocrats. Unsurprisingly, this political promiscuity has had consequences. In 2017 M5S enjoyed 32% of the vote. Now they are polling at just 16%. In his piece, Broder gives a full account of how and why this happened, taking in the collapse of their online ‘direct democratic platform’ Rousseau, as well as the scandals surrounding Ciro Grillo, the founder’s son, who has been accused of rape. Giuseppe Conte took over the M5S leadership in March, having previously governed as an ‘independent’ PM. His plan, it seems, is to use EU recovery funds to try and rebrand the party as a centre-left/green force that might rejuvenate progressive politics. It’s an admirable ambition. If Broder’s analysis is anything to go by, however, I’m afraid the degree of factionalism and low calibre of the current parliamentarians are likely to derail his idealistic vision from the very beginning.
Over the past few years you’ve probably read several stories about people buying houses in small towns across Italy for as little as €1. Journalists have had a field day sharing these around, sometimes to draw good faith attention to the bureaucratic problems that can arise, but more often just to gloat at people who have tried and failed to make such moves work. Despite the abundance of superficial and outright malicious coverage, this remains an interesting topic and there are indeed some well-researched pieces out there. This week I read one such example in The Times about the case of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a medieval hamlet in Abruzzo, which is offering €8,000 a year to all under 40s who agree to move there. Of course there are some drawbacks. This area is prone to earthquakes, the houses need a lot of renovation work, there are few transport links or amenities, and the wifi is terrible. Nevertheless, despite these factors, the village, which currently has just 60 residents, has received 27,000+ applications since the pandemic began! This is an impressive barometer of the appetite that does exist for such schemes, and an indicator of the role that rural investment could play in Italy’s economic recovery post Covid-19. Still, if you’re planning a quiet country move any time soon you might want to give Santo Stefano di Sessanio a miss.
Arts and culture: some postmodern nostalgia
Next month the publishing house Taschen are due to release a hardcover multilingual anthology dedicated to the life and work of Gio Ponti, “the father of modern Italian design.” Ponti was indeed one of the most important figures in shaping contemporary aesthetics here. His constructions, from the Pirelli tower in Milan, to his modernist church in Taranto, the Concattedrale Gran Madre di Dio, are among the most playful and intriguing 20th Century buildings anywhere in the world. You’d have to be rather well-endowed to actually purchase this book, which is retailing at an eye-watering €200. Still, this is definitely a volume you’ll want to flick through if you come across it in a gallery or bookshop. There are also plenty of essays and long-reads doing the rounds to mark the occasion. This feature in the Financial Times about Ponti’s life is well-worth reading, as is this rather quirky BBC article, which focuses more on his interior design skills. Check out the Taschen website to flick through the collection and enjoy shots like this one, of the Villa Planchart in Caracas, Venezuela which, amazingly, dates back to 1953. I for one think it’s beautiful.
I had the pleasure of discovering a new Italian DJ this week, and on BBC ‘Unclassified’ of all places. Ehua is an Italian electronica producer originally from Pisa who has lived in London for the past decade. She makes dark, jungle-inspired music that reminds me of a lot of artists like Aphex Twin, Ikonika, Kode9 and so on. Her new EP ‘Aquamarine’, which has just been released, is filled with robotic beeps, repetitive syncopated drum samples, and other Hyperdub-like cosmic effects. What sets the record apart though, at least for me, are the ambient textures which, according to the artist, are inspired by the colours and motion of water. It’s hard to find much info about Ehua herself, but from a bit of googling I did come across an interview in which she eloquently describes her artistic philosophy and explains, among other things, why she’s decided to sing backwards in Italian on some of her tracks (!) The intro is as good a place as any to start, so, if you’re into this kind of thing, grab some decent headphones and let those jagged electro raindrops wash over you.
Recipe of the week: Farinata di ceci
This has to be one of my all time favourite quick-fix vegetarian dishes. Farinata or cecina is a chickpea pancake, eaten across the Tyrrhenian coast in various forms. The traditional version is pretty simple. In Genoa, for example, they just eat it plain, smothered in olive oil. In Livorno, people prefer a softer version folded up in a bun, which they call a 5+5. Personally I think a cecina needs to be VERY crispy indeed, and ideally topped with a vinegary salad of some kind. Emiko Davies has a good basic recipe here, but you don’t really need one. Just remember the ratios: 1 part chickpea flour to 3 parts water. Mix and leave for a few hours. Get a shallow pancake tray, heat the oven to around 240C and whack it in there for 12 minutes. Top with tomatoes, spring onions, olives and maybe some anchovy and there you go: lunch sorted.
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About Me
My name is Jamie Mackay (@JacMackay) and I’m an author, editor and translator based in Florence. I’ve been writing about Italy for a decade for international media including The Guardian, The Economist, Frieze, and Art Review. I launched ‘The Week in Italy’ to share a more direct and regular overview of the debates and dilemmas, innovations and crises that sometimes pass under the radar of our overcrowded news feeds.
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