VIDEO | Zerocalcare among the activists of the Don Bosco park in Bologna: “The society I would like”

The cartoonist: "Bologna was an inspiration, then the city paved the way for many experiences"

BOLOGNA – “Beyond the defense of greenery and trees, the idea that things are maintained, restored, refurbished, rather than tearing everything down and rebuilding new things, and then replanting them later, is a dynamic that seems correct to me.” For this reason, the fight against the demolition of the Besta schools inside the Don Bosco park in Bologna “responds to the type of society I would like and in the direction I would like to go, rather than, precisely, projects that from ‘up then they sweep everything away.” Speaking is Michele Rech aka Zerocalcare, who this morning met the activists inside the park, who told him all the stages of the story that led to the permanent garrison and how the battle is continuing with the municipal administration, to which the committee proposed a renovation of the existing building rather than its reconstruction from scratch. And also of the dispute with the ‘other’ committee, which was instead in favor of the project.

“They invited me precisely to tell me about this dispute here, which seems to me to capture a lot of points that are important in general for our cities, to see what model of city and society we have in our heads in general – explains the cartoonist – the fact that there are however communities that say they want a say in the matter and that ‘this is the neighborhood we live in, we want to manage it in one way or another’, seems to me to be rewarded in some way”. All in a city, Bologna, where “many experiences of self-management and participation have been paved over in recent years and have transformed Bologna into a city from what was a cultural hotbed that was watched by all of Italy, where people also came to draw inspiration from something much drier and much more similar to a standard model that is now everywhere”. Rech also signed the petition against the demolition of the Besta schools, promising the activists that he would return. “I make comics, I have no influence on anything or anyone – he stated – but if there is a way even to do something here to continue talking about it, I’m happy.”