ERSILIAlab. La Biblioteca delle Relazioni
The “Library of Relationships” between Roma and Gagé
Via Bonfadini and via Sacile, Milan, Italy
2016—2018: design and realization of the 1st phase
Beneficiaries Roma community of via Bonfadini and via Sacile, neighborhood Molise-Calvairate-Ponti residents
Partners Fondazione Somaschi, Casa della Carità
Funds Otto per mille Chiesa Valdese, Fondazione Cariplo, Comune di Milano
Since 2016, we have developed a project to foster self-promoting processes inside Roma settlements through architectural incursions. This project is called ERSILIAlab La Biblioteca delle Relazioni (the “Library of Relationships”) and it is part of our wider social-urban development program called ERSILIA, in which we promote relationships between Roma people and their not-Roma neighbors (called Gagé, that is to say “not-Roma” in Romani tradition).
After a year-long process, made of workshops, meetings, events and neighborhood parties, ERSILIAlab La Biblioteca delle Relazioni has culminated in the construction of a mobile pop-up carriage, called Il Carro di ERSILIA.The carriage has been built by Roma and Gagé neighbors all together, and it has been conceived as a public mobile space designed to share mutual knowledge. Further, it is both physical and ìsocial space to diffuse Romani culture not only in the neighborhood but across the entire city of Milan. Thanks to a series of events, it has provided opportunities to create cultural relationships between Roma and Gagé.
