Re-Present Sant'Erasmo

Sant'Erasmo is a degraded district of Palermo. My project aimed to reveal its potential and to make Palermitans want to make urban projects there, for breaking with the ambient fatalism and get around the mismanagement of the administration. This process leads me to do an exhibition in public space.

Urban projects in Palermo have difficulty to become realty, because of governance's inertia. Palermitans are used to it and mainly resigned; they said "It will never change". This attitude is contributing to fuel the inertia. Instead of doing a classic urban project, which would just be added to the list of unfinished projects, it seemed to me more relevant to work on project's conditions. I do not rely on the players of orgware already identified and who showed their limits, but I call on those who are never involved and who would be allow to make a difference: inhabitants. My project could be summarized in a simple way: make people want to do projects. For this, I decided to build up a narrative for Sant'Erasmo, to represent it, to bring it to the present, to give it a place in people's thoughts and desires. I've identified five sites in Sant'Erasmo which are representing a high potential of transformation: the fishing harbor, the coast, the Oreto River, an agricultural land and several abandoned industrial buildings. To reach a wide public, a public posting was obvious. I armed myself of a representation that speak to everyone: the poster. For each of my topics, I drew a triptych of poster speaking about yesterday, today and tomorrow. I represented the past and the present to contribute to improving the district's perception. Then I drew a possible future for Sant'Erasmo, optimistic and desirable, as being also a near future, demonstrating that transformation efforts remain limited. To complete successfully my process, I've worked with the only local cultural and social structure: the ecomuseum Mare Memoria Viva. Together we organized a billposting on the harbor's dock. So posters have been truly used as a medium to provoke discussions, questioning and projection.