Manifesto al Presente is an active research workshop which I am developing together with the ISEC Foundation and people living today in situations of marginalization and fragility in the con- temporary social/public sphere: newcomers (first and second generation migrants), sex workers, members of the LGBtqia+ community, children. The project is born thanks to the availability of the ISEC - an historical archive based in the outskirt of Milano collecting memories of the Milanese labour movements of the XX century -, and the will of these contemporary marginalised and racialized subjects to share reflections and experiences: the aim of the work is to elaborate new representations and practices for the production of outstanding requests and narratives, either real or symbolic.
“Manifesto al presente” is an intimate dialogue where to restore the coexistence of bodies and struggles, within an open system of solidarity and experiences where people can exercise their desires.
It is a political and poetic reading of workers’ testimonies projected into the broader processes of hegemonic capitalism resonating in the past, present and future: the ISEC archive, with its body of the lives and struggles of the past, offers a new skeleton and mirror to confront with and to which to provide new meanings, giving life to “a living political archive”.
The project Manifesto to the Present is part of a research project begun during the three-month artistic residency “I DON’T HAVE A DREAM JOB, I DON’T DREAM OF LABOUR”, promoted by Matrice Lavoro Lom- bardia, the network for recounting culture and transformations of work, constituted by MUSIL- Museo dell’industria e del Lavoro, BASE Milano, Coclea, Comune di Cedegolo and Fondazione ISEC.
Isadora: gender is a performance so we take a break from the exhibition
Le piccole ballerine della Scala in una tartatella. Fondazione ISEC, Sesto San Giovanni,
Archivio Fotografico di «Voce comunista»