Cities in revolution - 2005

Esterni was founded in Milan in 1995 as an association engaged in the valorization of public space. Its most meaningful initiatives were: the ten editions of the Milano Film Festival, the National Strike of TV Audience and the event organized in opposition to the Salone del Mobile which promoted ideas and projects for the city. 
Esterni has in Milan at its disposal a space for exhibitions, for its offices and needs like a kitchen, a cultural center, a cinema, a theatre, a trattoria and an art gallery. On the lower floor are positioned the spaces for projections, exhibitions, meetings and courses, while on the upper floor there is a bed & breakfast for visitors and passing artists. More than ten persons are non-stop engaged in planning and in the organization of events, correlated shows and all the aspects connected to those activities: communication, marketing, promotion, fund raising, press, archives organization, hospitality, relationships, preparations, logistic etc. All those activities are done by a great number of collaborators among which there are artists, musicians, professionals, craftsmen, observers and critics scattered in the city and in the world.

The events promoted by esterni are under the patronage of the public administration, cultural institutions, the Association of the European Cultural Institutes of Milan. Through interventions, workshops and presentations, the association has strict contacts with universities and academies of Milan. The thread of the activities of esterni is the valorization of urban public space. In fact, esterni wants the city to be a place where different experiences can be done and a place where meetings are made easier. The public spaces are seen as an occasion to enrich people culturally. The events organized by esterni are a privileged moment of reciprocity which aim is a revolution in the use of public spaces. esterni defines it "a spontaneous attempt to survive the condition of emergency in our cities" where "private interests transform public spaces in publicity spaces, the community in a target, the city in an univocal communication campaign in which the citizen is only a receiver which has to adapt himself and most of all, to obey".

"The idea of a city made according to human proportions, in which one can live and not just survive", inspires all events, exhibitions and performances organized by esterni. They want to amaze and to invite citizens to participate actively; they want to stimulate the desire to experiment new situations. The events organized by esterni are accompanied by the belief that "the elements and the signs of cities are today repeatable as well as the needs and the expressions of both single citizens and entire communities. There is no space where one can express its diversity and public events are getting less and less spontaneous and authentic". In the squares, in the streets, at crossroads, in prestigious and representative spaces of the city as well as in abandoned and isolated places, esterni experiments events which can demonstrate that every place can be transformed and animated. It is not just a tangible place they are thinking about, but also a human context which can be modified: interaction is a way to stimulate the abolition of commonplaces and reassuring uses in order to explore the possibilities of doubt, rediscover, dialogue and play. esterni proposes a way to survive in the cities thinking about a future revolution of public spaces and their use. With its events, esterni calls for people willing to contribute with ideas, projects and situations to the creation of a "human city". All the initiatives organized by esterni are being video recorded in order to make last in time events which are unique and not repeatable because occasional.