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On July 8, we’re presenting Cara Città in Jesi — the new urban, cultural, and social regeneration project we’re curating in the city of Jesi (Ancona), in the Marche region, in Italy.
Together with the Municipality of Jesi and a network of local organizations — Arci Jesi-Fabriano, Kar Movimenti Creativi, Ratatà, ACCA Academy, Casa delle Culture, and Circolo Ferretti — and with the support of the Cariverona Foundation, we will activate an 80-square-meter public space, currently unused, located at Via Urbani 19. This will happen through a participatory process that puts residents and creatives at the center, co-programming cultural and social activities.
As the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Jesi, in June 2024 we responded to the invitation from Sineglossa and Arci Jesi-Fabriano to imagine a participatory process that would allow both long-time and new residents to connect and build a renewed sense of belonging to the city. Taking advantage of the STeP 2024 call for proposals published by the Cariverona Foundation, we developed a project proposal focused on the urban regeneration of an unused public space. This space will be available to residents, young creatives, local associations, and neighborhood committees for the co-programming of social and cultural events.
During the event on Tuesday, July 8, the project’s main actions will be presented, starting with a photography and writing workshop that will begin in September. It will be led by Jesi-based photographer Francesca Tilio and Francesca Matteoni, historian and author of poetry, essays, and fiction.
The workshop will explore various neighborhoods to identify urgent themes and issues affecting the city and its people. Through methodologies such as collective writing, neighborhood walks, and the creation of emotional maps, participants will collectively produce a photographic album and a narrative centered around the city — past and future.
Thanks to a collaboration with the Ratatà collective, a mural will be created, and the album — printed by ACCA Academy — will be presented at the next edition of the Ratatà Festival.
With Cara Città, we want to find a new way of inhabiting the city. We'll do this by reclaiming a forgotten public space and turning it into an open and accessible place — a space where things can happen that help us rethink and strengthen our sense of community and belonging. The questions we’ll ask ourselves are: What kind of people do we want to be? What does it mean to belong to a city? How can we take care of the spaces we share? To find answers, we’ll use creative and artistic tools, but also participatory workshops and shared assemblies.
Event Program
Walk and Public Meeting
FREE ENTRY
Tuesday, July 8th, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Meeting point at Circolo Ferretti (Via F. Politi, 27), to move together to the “Cara città” space (Via C. Urbani, 19), in Jesi
Speakers
- Cristina Mingo and Sofia Marasca (Sineglossa)
- Luca Brecciaroli, Simona Cardinali (Municipality of Jesi)
- Carolina Mancini (Arci Jesi-Fabriano)
- Francesca Tilio and Lucia Romagnoli (KAR Movimenti Creativi)
- Alessandro Gianfelici (Circolo fotografico Ferretti)
- Bruno Letizia (Ratatà Festival)
- Caterina Fattori (Casa delle Culture / Casa delle donne Jesi)
Presentation of the writing and photography workshops starting in September, with Francesca Matteoni and Francesca Tilio, and opening of registrations.
Francesca Matteoni is a poet and a writer from Pistoia, a professor of history and anthropology in Florence, and a creator of workshops on fairy tales, poetry and tarot. Among her books are the poetry collection Ciò che il mondo separa (Marcos y Marcos, 2021); Io sarò il rovo. Fiabe di un paese silenzioso (effequ, 2021), the novel Tundra e Peive (nottetempo 2023) and Il famiglio della strega. Sangue e stregoneria nell’epoca moderna (effequ, 2024), and the forthcoming narrative essay Animali, custodi di storie (nottetempo, 2025). She writes about literature, ecology, and magic for Indiscreto and Kobo.
In the final part of the event, a small imagination exercise is planned: What will this space become? With pen and paper, we will create an emotional map of the space to jointly shape the form it will take in the future.
