(letter to a friend)
Dear C.
Dear C.
one of the things
that I just can't stand is thinking that I wasn't clear in a
speech, and perhaps that evening in the pizzeria the things I said were
too many and not very tidy, I thought I'd go back to it with some notes,
in the awareness that writing helps to better orient oneself in the river of
words that often "exceed" us, and in the hope of being successful this time
less messy.
The issues were
two; the first concerned the politics of the territory, and to this I thought I'd dedicate the next article
background of Uqbar and surrounding areas, which I mentioned to you something about on Saturday at
conference and of which I attach a copy, which summarizes our (of
Uqbar I mean) positions on the topic.
For how long
concerns the second issue we talked about, I am referring to that of the theatre
in high school, I still think it's particularly difficult to tell;
perhaps the exchange of letters between Erri De Luca and Angelo Bolaffi that I read
in these days it can help us.
I'll give you a
particularly interesting passage in which Erri De Luca, trying to define the
spirit that fueled '68, he says:
“…and another of these advantages was
participate in a carousel of loves that teemed in the midst of those tensions.
But they weren't for everyone, there was an exclusion code there too.
The hierarchies of beauty, of
wealth: the beautiful, the well-dressed, the well-endowed were not worth a penny. But
other attractions mattered, such as the credit that individuals grabbed with
their words among others.
There was a stage and distributed degrees. The
most of us daydreamed about the girl to hold our arm with
procession, to be protected in case of need and in front of which to show oneself resolutely.
Who knows how much courage back then, even mine, was dedicated to the shoulders, to a
a pair of impossible eyes following us from afar. Better not to look back
try to cross them, they weren't there anyway.
This is how you lived in love, even without someone else
part to hold between your teeth in a name. We were in love because we were passionate about it
around and promised everyone a day of luck.”
(Erri De Luca and Angelo
Bolaffi, from “Like us with ghosts”)
Here, the
theater in those high school years constituted, for some of us, a bit of what
sixty-eight represented for Erri De Luca and what it represents for us today
Uqbar… the feeling of living in a
prolonged dream.
A joy
intense and elongated, which lasts long enough to give you time to look at it from the inside
outside: a strange sensation, which you carry with you forever with certainty
that you were lucky enough to steal a secret from the world and that you have the duty to
tell it…
But tell
desires are not difficult, the challenge is to give them consistency, and then I thought
to the engineer as a builder of dreams and to Uqbar as the city where
start trying our experiences…
So here it is
because, that evening, I told you that the first step to take is to
look for forms of aggregation around a project that can trigger
sensations like those described above, only then will we have made a contribution
true, revolutionary because it has the strength to leave its mark on ours
city.
You said that
it's not possible to aggregate everyone, you said "but do you look around?", okay, but
This is exactly what I meant when in the leading article I wrote "un
natural phenomenon of amplification and resonance", that is, if it begins to
working with someone then becomes a chain reaction…
I think the
revolution can take place in a moment
of distraction of events, when it seems truly impossible, when Nobody he expects it, but we do
we are there ready to seize the moment…
And in this the
Summer Schools and the Institute have an important role... in the awareness that
culture is a means and not an end... and the "C group", as I call you
in Uqbar meetings, he can give us a hand, I'm sure...
I'm leaving tomorrow
for Paris and I don't know if I can get you these notes in the meantime
I'll add a note: your friend Miriam is really nice...
Soon!
