Ogni angolo ha la sua storia

Unusual itineraries around the Brera district - December 2019

December 2019: a meeting with citizens, two itineraries with theatrical guided tours within the Brera district and a concluding event/tour. Two routes through six monuments/places in the Brera district, narrated and revisited through the narration of an actress. A dramaturgy composed of historical documentary material and the stories, anecdotes and experiences of the citizens who were interviewed during the writing phase.

'Every corner has its own history' is an old popular proverb that is well suited to historic neighbourhoods like Brera. A district, after all, is nothing more than a portion of the city, a small part of a large Milan. Brera, of corners and stories is full of them, starting with its name: Brera comes from Braida, which many translate as 'uncultivated land' or 'heathland', and others used to indicate the best and most fertile land of all.

And it is from this area of ancient Braida that our stories, our personal sentimental geographies, begin.

The project was financed by Municipio 1 as an action to enhance Milan's neighbourhoods, and consisted of four events: a presentation of the project and meeting with the citizens, to collect stories and anecdotes; two itineraries with theatrical guided tours within the Brera neighbourhood, which touched on six significant places among monuments and ancient buildings and shops; and a concluding event that stitched together the first two itineraries and ended with an aperitif at the Casa delle Donne in via Marsala 8, the project's territorial partner.

The dramaturgy was created by Livia Bonetti, actress and author, and Caterina Scalenghe, dramaturge and director, who composed the historical documentary material together with the stories, anecdotes and experiences of the citizens who contributed to the project. The public thus found in the itinerant scenic reading their own words, their own memories, merged in a voice as collective as it is personal, in a neighbourhood that preserves its historical memory in the memories of the elderly, and continues it with the younger generations present.

Stories of places then, through the stories of people: Fernanda Wittegens, Carlo Erba, the magical pens of Buzzati and Montale; and then again of sui generis saints such as Sant'Espedito, the historical Bolognese entraineuse and the dream of Signor Fossati

More than 100 people participated in the project as visitors, onlookers, citizens interviewed, and managers of places and shops.