The Law of the Sea
Plus the PD's gender headache and a first look at the Venice Biennale
There’s been an unusual flurry of attention about Italy in the international news this past week. The story of a cable car disaster near Lago Maggiore, which killed 14, has been front and centre. At first it seemed that neglected maintenance work during the Covid-19 lockdowns resulted in a structural support-wire snapping and the car being “catapulted” from its frame down into the forest. It now turns out that three engineers actually made a conscious decision to insert a clamp into the brake mechanism, presumably to avoid undertaking more extensive, time-consuming work. While they will now stand trial for criminal negligence, the public is understandably outraged and many are afraid that similar tragedies could yet be on the horizon. The BBC has more details. On a lighter note, as you’ve probably seen, the Italian group Måneskin won the Eurovision Song Contest last weekend with their track, ‘zitti e buoni’. Leaving aside the surrounding media buzz - and a drug scandal that was not a drug scandal - it’s an OK song. Perfectly fine. Honestly, though, my vote would have gone to Ukraine’s Go_A for their techno-folk banger ‘Shum’. Still, congrats to Måneskin on a refreshingly energetic and rebellious performance. The skin-tight all-leather outfits weren’t bad either.
There’s been plenty else going on these past seven days. For me the most important story of the week actually concerned Carola Rackete. In case you’ve forgotten, Rackete was the German sea captain who, back in 2018, saved a group of refugees from drowning in the waters between Sicily and Malta. This was the period when Matteo Salvini was Minister of the Interior, a position he used to try and put a halt to all such operations. Following Salvini’s guidelines, the Italian coastguard blocked Rackete’s ship from landing in Lampedusa. Recognising that there was an urgent humanitarian situation on board, however, Carola refused to comply and allegedly rammed the coastguard’s vessel in order to dock. The legal fallout has been buried in the midst of pandemic news. This week, though, the Court of Agrigento announced that they will shelve the case against Carola indefinitely (which in Italian legalese means she’s now safe). This is a personal victory for the activist and all others who are undertaking such missions. Just as importantly, though, it’s a welcome demonstration that despite Salvini and co’s non-compliance, the UN’s ‘Law of the Sea, which unambiguously outlines the universal “duty to rescue persons in distress”, still has some legal force here. The decision is likely to provide valuable precedent in the years ahead.
Campaigns are starting to rev-up for Italy’s municipal elections which, having been delayed due to Covid-19, are now scheduled to take place in the autumn. There are two things to keep your eyes on. First is the mayoral race in Rome: after a promising start, the incumbent Virginia Raggi, of the Five Star Movement, has fallen out of favour due to her failure to tackle the housing crisis, as well as serious garbage and infrastructure issues (see above). Polls are volatile of course but she’s clearly on the back foot with around 15%. In the meantime Enrico Michetti, a mysterious newcomer who’s affiliated with far-right Fratelli’Italia, looks ready to cause serious upset. As ever, the elephant in the room is the centre-left Partito Democratico. The PD is currently embroiled in yet another internal crisis, this time because - despite claiming they are the party of gender equality - they’ve somehow emerged as the only political force that’s failed to put-forward any female candidates in the major cities! When he stepped down as leader of the PD earlier this year Nicola Zingaretti accused his colleagues of factionalism, opportunism and being “out of touch”. Predictably, nobody was paying much attention and alas the centre-left looks set for another sad defeat in the upcoming ballot.
Arts and culture: how will we live together?
Last week saw the much-anticipated inauguration of the Venice Biennale for architecture. The event, which was cancelled last year due to the pandemic, is one of the most important in Italy’s cultural calendar. This edition is titled ‘how we will live together’ and it is focused on natural materials and traditional building techniques as ways of exploring sustainability and inter-cultural creativity. Christele Harrouk has written a punchy overview of the show with some close up pictures for ArchDaily which is well-worth a read. Meanwhile, some critics are mumbling that the curating has been too decentralised and chaotic; others that there’s a certain irony to hosting an event with such utopian aspirations in a city that is haemorrhaging residents year on year while rents skyrocket. These are all fair points. Having said that, while I’m no expert, the pavilions themselves do look pretty impressive. You can see most of them over at Domus magazine. Anyway, the Biennale runs until November so there’s plenty of time to get to Venice if you’re interested in taking a look for yourself.
As regular readers will know I’m a big fan of Francesco Fusaro, the Italian DJ and musicologist who, among other things, curates a monthly selection of classical and contemporary tracks as part of his NTS show Tafelmusik. Well, the last instalment was a real revelation, and I thought it was particularly apt to flag it up here given the aforementioned mess going on in the PD. In this special episode, Francesco spoke with Luisa Santacesaria and Valentina Bertolani about the ‘female pioneers of Italian experimental music’. The playlist is made up entirely of the work of little known women artists from the 70s and 80s such as Teresa Rampazzi and Franca Sacchi. These figures are obscure even within Italy, but as the guests demonstrate they nevertheless produced contributions to the avant-garde that were daring, thought-provoking and occasionally just bizarre. You can listen to the full episode - which is two hours long - here, and I have to say the conversation is just as riveting as the tracks themselves. After further googling around the topic this week I’ve been enjoying Miriam Bordoni’s jazzy lounge record from 1975, ‘The Sundowners.’ It’s the perfect record to whack on for a post-work, early-summer aperitivo I’d say.
Recipe of the week: Linguine with crab and chilli
This was one of those dishes that was supposed to be a last minute quick-fix but ended up surpassing all expectations. Perusing the supermarket aisles for the usual puttanesca ingredients I found myself picking up a tin of crab meat on a decadent whim. I know, tinned crab can be nasty, but I’d half remembered a recipe I’d read by Russell Norman with some chilli and tomatoes and I wanted to give it a try. It was superlative. Norman uses white wine to dull the “fishiness” of the meat and remove any unwanted funk; then he cooks the pasta directly in the chilli oil for the last two minutes which really lifts the flavour. You can find his version on google books here. The next day, buoyed by my success, I doubled the garlic and switched the lemon for a lime which was hanging about in the back of the fridge. It was, though I say it myself, even tastier post-tweaking. So give it a go!
That’s it for this week - as ever I do hope you enjoyed this instalment. If you haven’t already, please do follow the ‘Week in Italy’ Facebook page, or my twitter, for a few extra links and easy-access to the substack archive. If this email was forwarded to you, or you’re accessing on the web and would like to receive further updates, you can subscribe using this link below. Thanks!
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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