The enhancement and promotion of culture is today central to the development
policies of European cities. In Torino, culture and cultural activities, in
traditional sectors and in those linked to interculture, represents one of the
key components for the improvement of the population’s quality of life,
but is also a potential driver of economic development with a major impact on
employment. A recent study by the European Commission has estimated that two
fifths of employment growth in the European Union in the coming years will be
produced by the culture industry.

Torino has a dynamic and diffuse cultural life, with many enterprises and NGOs
linked to the sector and several actions are undertaken to trigger a fully-fledged
growth sector and build a new image of the City: a great attraction for visitors,
deeper integration between the city’s museums, a stronger international
season of theatre, music and cinema events, a new pole that encourages the development
of young people’s artistic and cultural work as well as a mayor attention
paid for new forms of artistic expression such as ethnic music and intercultural
events . The cultural strategy aims at ensuring a climate of pluralism and pay
attention to the diversity of autonomous cultural proposals.

This report is particularly focused on a specific area of the City named Porta
Palazzo where the UPP Project ended in December 2001 has been the trigger for
developing more effective inclusive policies and antidiscrimination as well
social inclusion actions and initiatives.

The Porta Palazzo area lies in the historical centre of Turin. In its centre,
surrounding the Piazza della Repubblica, lies one of the largest markets in
Europe with over 1,000 traders and over 200 permanent stalls and shops which
are visited daily by up to 40,000 people. Acting as a meeting point for groups
of foreign and local residents, the market with its lively ambience at weekends
and regular antique fairs, attracts residents from all over Turin. The market
also attracts large numbers of tourists. However, the area suffers from an increasing
unemployment pr+oblem caused by the closure of a number of small enterprises.
There also exists a general state of urban degradation due to a lack of maintenance
of buildings, poor waste management and an above average crime level. The situation
is compounded by emigration and a declining population.

The U.P.P. "Gate" project, located in the Porta Palazzo area, is
embedded in a wider regeneration effort which is aiming to reverse these negative
trends in the area. It is based on a "social contract" signed in 1996
and is aiming to improve the general welfare of the neighbourhood. The overall
objective is to enhance the area and encourage people not only to remain in
the area, but also to participate and invest in the area’s future.

A particular attention is paid to the ethnic minority groups ant their integration
in the social fabric of the area. Many initiatives have been taken in the last
5 years in order to assure a stronger participation of ethnic minorities representatives
in the social and cultural life of this part of the city. In fact the Porta
Palazzo area is one of the most evident “melting pot” of the City
housing the higher concentration of people coming from all over the world and
clearly characterised by social exclusion as well as by a lack of integration.



SOME STATISTICS ON THE CHOSEN AREA

Population

The city of Turin has been registering, for some years now, an overall
reduction in the resident population, a reduction which within the area of the
project appears to be more marked. The tendency for the Turin population to
prefer the outlying areas of the city has in some zones in the centre been accentuated
by progressive forms of accommodation and social decay which this project is
specifically seeking to address. In addition, the overall balance confirms a
propensity to ageing in our societies, with the number of deaths always greater
than the number of births. To partially contrast this tendency the immigration
flow has a contribution to make. Within the municipal context the difference
between those who leave and those who arrive is to date tilted in favour of
the former; at a disaggregated level, on the other hand, it is possible to note
that in the central districts this ratio tends to balance out if not in fact
move in the opposite direction, as is happening in the Porta Palazzo zone. Starting
from these considerations, the area of “The Gate” project can be
seen as a situation specific to itself where a number of specific aspects deserve
greater exploration.

Overall population and variations in comparison with the previous years

Torino Project area

1995 922.754 = 11.409 =

1996 919.602 -0,34% 11.565 +1,37%

1997 914.818 -0,52% 11.737 +1,49%

1998 909.741 -0,55% 11.689 -0,41%

1999 904.171 -0,66% 11.683 -0,05%

Natural flow Migratory flow

Pop. in 1/1 born dead emigrants immigrants balance pop. 31/12

Torino

1996 922.754 5.830 7.771 24.832 23.621 -3.152 919.602

1997 919.602 5.981 7.838 23.273 20.876 -4.784 914.818

1998 914.818 6.172 8.073 23.336 20.672 -5.077 909.741

1999 909.741 6.084 8.170 25.488 22.004 -5.570 904.171

Project area

1996 11.409 101 184 476 715 +156 11.565

1997 11.565 74 182 352 632 +172 11.737

1998 11.737 96 185 383 424 -48 11.689

1999 11.689 99 176 411 482 -6 11.683

2. Main features/ type of social exclusion you think can and do respond
to cultural tools in the chosen area of the City

Cultural area in Porta Palazzo

Porta Palazzo has always had a central role in the way of life in Torino. As
a neighbourhood, it has been interpreted as a suburb, but in reality it belongs,
by right, to the historic nucleus of Torino. For newcomers who first visit Porta
Palazzo the neighbourhood seems to be teeming with popular life, voices, smells,
flavours, colours, within a context that recalls its historic tradition, the
memory of daily life as it has been repeated day after day for decades.

However, for the people of Torino, Porta Palazzo is also a place to avoid, especially
at night, a place to pass through quickly as they make their way home. In this
way the wealth of the neighbourhood is lost, mixed in with a sense of degradation
and fear.

The Municipality is trying to work on this aspect, the links of the neighbourhood
with the rest of the city: bringing back the people of Torino to visit and to
live in the area. The Gate project wants to propose a structured and systematic
re-launch of the neighbourhood as a theatre for artistic and cultural shows.
The numerous interventions in building and urban regeneration, the commercial
revival with the opening of numerous new activities, the interest that has been
shown by the public and private sectors through their investments in the area
have triggered a revival process that could re-awaken the attention of the cultural
world for an area rich in resources and spaces that are suitable to be used
and lived for these kinds of initiatives.

In fact in the last 5 years the City – by the means of the Gate project
has been working so that the people of Torino return and live in Porta Palazzo
rather than just pass through it. To recreate this link between the neighbourhood
and the city, but also to overcome the limits of the city boundaries, culture
and tourism are preferential tools to be used. Starting with the riches that
the neighbourhood has to offer, in terms of history and traditions, but above
all in spaces where culture can be developed, the project has been working to
promote the neighbourhood as a cultural and then tourist resource for the city
by continuing its initiatives valorising, connecting and supporting cultural
development in a creative multi-ethnic environment in which leisure and free
time find opportunity.

For instance The Gate Project is now working to organise routes through the
streets of the area to make the most of the regeneration that has already been
completed and to raise interest in that which is still underway. The proposal
is addressed not only to professionals but also to the curious and tourists
and one of its purposes is to valorise and increase the knowledge of the different
cultural expressions in the area and to facilitate the exchange among different
ethnic minority groups and the local inhabitants.

In order to better define the approach applied in the area several actions
can be described.

Some of them are clusters of actions broadly addressed to all the inhabitants
while the others can be considered most targeted as well as intercultural ones.

The most interesting cluster of actions is developed around the market area,
named Balôn and it is the following:

The Balôn - a well of resources: to promote the promotional programme
of initiatives and animation of the area.

There are many initiatives by cultural associations or the traders of the Borgo
Dora area to promote the area of the Balôn through artistic-cultural shows.
In order to support these initiatives logistic and organisational support to
the associations, linking up the various inputs are offered, in order to create
a common programme for the promotion of the area. The Municipality offers “Cultural
spaces” i.e. the resources of the neighbourhood at the service of every
form of culture with particular attention to the cultural expressions offered
by self-organised groups of inhabitants and ethnic minorities associations.


Porta Palazzo has always had a central role in the way of life in Torino. As
a neighbourhood, it has been interpreted as a suburb, but in reality it belongs,
by right, to the historic nucleus of Torino. For newcomers who first visit Porta
Palazzo the neighbourhood seems to be teeming with popular life, voices, smells,
flavours, colours, within a context that recalls its historic tradition, the
memory of daily life as it has been repeated day after day for decades.

However, for the people of Torino, Porta Palazzo is also a place to avoid, especially
at night, a place to pass through quickly as they make their way home. In this
way the wealth of the neighbourhood is lost, mixed in with a sense of degradation
and fear.

The Gate Project is trying to work on this aspect, the links of the neighbourhood
with the rest of the city: bringing back the people of Torino to visit and to
live in the area. The project wants to propose a structured and systematic re-launch
of the neighbourhood as a theatre for artistic and cultural shows. The numerous
interventions in building and urban regeneration, the commercial revival with
the opening of numerous new activities, the interest that has been shown by
the public and private sectors through their investments in the area have triggered
a revival process that could re-awaken the attention of the cultural world for
an area rich in resources and spaces that are suitable to be used and lived
for these kinds of initiatives.

3. Description of the cultural tools selected

On the basis of the trasnational methodology chosen and applied during the
implementation of our UE project the Municipality of Torino decided to focus
the analysis of the cultural tools that are described below.

A grid was first defined in order to simplify indicators and to give the other
European partners the opportunity of better understanding the local tools.

Furthermore the use of the grid allowed everybody to show weaknesses and strengths
in the cultural policies of every chosen area in the cities/towns.

3.1 The Grid

These events have been analysed and they are a sample of the intercultural
policy of Torino Municipality. They are they following:

1. The CousCousClan which had its name changed in Multikulti after September
the 11th 2001 because some representatives of the Islamic Communities the play
upon words (Ku Klux Klan – CousCousClan) can be seen as a lack of respect
as well as a negative way of representing the Silamic Community itself, which
was not the purpose of those who started the project who wanted, on the contrary,
to defuse the general sense of separation characterising the above mentioned
community by using a typical food and an association (the Clan) for publicising
food and culture by the means of different events such as the one described
in the grid.

2. Italian-Arabian Centre Dar Al Hikma. The centre was inaugurated two years
ago in a Municipal building which previously hosted public baths closed for
lack of users a decade ago. The Municipality loaned in commodatum free of charge
to the Association proposing the project of the Cultural Centre. This political
choice was not an easy one, because of the opposition of groups of inhabitants
who thought that such a intercultural centre could become a meeting point for
illegal people (i.e. migrants who did not have the permit to stay – sans
papiers) increasing the sense of insecurity of the area. Nevertheless the decision
showed the importance of paving the way for new good practices and the Centre,
after one year from its opening has become a reference point for many cultural
initiatives.

3. The game of Romeo e Juliet (see the annexed video). It has been a very important
experience involving students of the Primary and Secondary Schools of the area
as well as young people coming from ethnic minority groups and working in the
market of Porta Palazzo. The idea of the performance is based on the idea that
the problems of integration and mutual acceptance of cultural and ethnic diversities
could be overcome by a common work of diverse people living, studying and working
in the area. The basis was Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliet and
the opposed love of two young people adapted to the local context of the market
area. The original title of the performance which came from a open debate among
all the actors (professional and unprofessional ones), the students and the
other involved people, was Fathma and Francesco and its plot focused on the
love story between a young Muslim woman and an Italian boy. A strong reaction
of the Islamic religion representatives who considered offensive and discriminating
the idea of dealing with their religion in a light way made the group of people
working on it to maintain the original name but not changing the original idea
of using a nowadays love story between culturally diverse young people as a
way of denouncing all forms of fundamentalism, discrimination and social exclusion.
So, step by step the performance took shape with the direct contribution not
only of the professionals but of the students, and the inhabitants.

4. ZutArt. The experiment issued from the need of a group of young artists that
wanted to use particular public meeting places such as laundrettes to present
their works of art It has top be said that in Italy the majority of people using
laundrettes is coming from ethnic minority groups, elderly and poor people,
namely all those citizens who do not own a washing machine at home. So the main
objective of this initiative was to involve these people doing the washing in
giving their preferences and comments, so that, at the end of every exhibition,
a list of the top classified as well as of all the comments became a way for
discussing with people about culture, especially a non-institutional one and
to make them closer to art and culture in a unusual way. This initiatives, a
bottom up one, was really successful as many people visited all the exhibitions
hosted in different laundrettes and the most part, who never approached to art
could feel protagonists.

The above described initiatives were classified as follows:

Local event indicators

Nrs Description

1 Name of the event

CousCousClan now Multikulti (after September the 11th) – TURISTI PER
CASA (Tourists at home)

2 Type of cultural tool

Gastronomy and different type of foods presented through several itineraries
organised by the association whose legs are hosted on ethnic shops, ethnic restaurants,
etc.

3 Which excluded groups are involved

Ethnic minorities and elderly people, above all.

4 Which area (territory)

Porta Palazzo

5 Number of participants

150 different shops included in the gastronomic itineraries + 20x2groups of
visitors each Saturday (60)

6 Locality of the event

The market area around Porta Palazzo

7 Impact (a). local (b). wider

a) many visitors (especially Italians) participated in the initiatives coming
from all over the city.

b) At Italian level the initiative achieved a wide success and publicisation.
People coming from other Regions are now participating

c) Several teachers from primary schools “used” the itineraries
in order to learn different approaches to culture of their students through
the food

9 Partnerships

Chamber of Commerce, Turin City Council, Bank Associations , Region of Piedmont,
Local Press

The Gate UPP Project

Nrs Description

1 Name of the event

ZutArt

2 Type of cultural tool

Painting, sculpture, theatre performaces around the theme of the laundry as
a meeting point of different cultures

3 Which excluded groups are involved

Ethnic minorities, young people, elderly people

4 Which area (territory)

Porta Palazzo and other districts within the network of those chain of laundries

5 Number of participants

500

6 Locality of the event

4 laundries (self-service ones) x 4 exhibitions in each of them

7 Impact (a). local (b). wider

a)many people of the districts visited the laundries and then they vote their
favourite artistic work

8 Level of involvement in design, organisation and participation

The experiment was planned by a group of young artists, discussed with the
local participation forum and then proposed to the inhabitants with the aim
of involving local people when visiting laundries which are normally used by
people coming from ethnic minorities. Each

9 Partnerships

The Gate UPP Project, local artists associations, the laundries networks ethnic
minorities associations

Nrs Description

1 Name of the event

Italian-Arabian Centre Dar Al Hikma

2 Type of cultural tool

Cultural Integration through: multicultural library, exhibitions, conferences,
debates, Hammam, Moroccan restaurant, Arabian language courses

3 Which excluded groups are involved

Ethnic minorities, elderly, young people

4 Which area (territory)

The biggest open area market in Torino in the central area of the City (see
district profile)

5 Number of participants

Every week, according to the programmes of the Centre about 500 people

6 Locality of the event

An ancient public bath now restored in Arabian style

7 Impact (a). local (b). wider

a) After a first strong opposition of the most part of local people the Center
is now accepted as a meeting point as well as a cultural reference point for
everybody

b) Many people coming from other districts and from outside the City are participating
in the proposed events

8 Level of involvement in design, organisation and participation

Some representatives of local ethnic minority communities were directly involved
in the creation of the Centre.

Nowadays the restaurant is managed by a mixed association both of Italian and
Moroccan people, the Turkish Bath is run by a NGO composed by Moroccan and Algerian
workers and the Intercultural Library as well as intercultural initiative such
as photo exhibition, Arabian language courses and showing of films are organised
by a group composed by some representatives of ethnic communities,

9 Partnerships

Turin City Council,

The Gate UPP Project,

Ethnic Minorities Associations

Nrs Description

1 Name of the event

Il gioco di Romeo e Giulietta (The game of Romeo and Juliet)

2 Type of cultural tool

Theatre Performance – Intercultural mediation

3 Which excluded groups are involved

Ethnic minorities, elderly people, excluded young people (both Italian and
immigrants)

4 Which area (territory)

The biggest open area market in Torino in the central area of the City (see
district profile)

5 Number of participants

600 among students, actors, students of the National art school (DAMS), shop
owners, citizens living in the area

6 Locality of the event

The courtyard of a secondary school in the neighbourhood

7 Impact (a). local (b). wider

c) local impact very strong the performance was planned for one evening (free
entry) and then they performed the show for a week

d) a similar experiment has been proposed in other districts of the City and
in other towns of the Region

8 Level of involvement in design, organisation and participation

100%. During the preparation of the performance the local press and a National
Literary Award published the writings (stories, poetries, songs) on the theme
of different ethnic groups way of living and cohesion

9 Partnerships

Theatre companies, Turin City Council, The Gate UPP Project, Trade Associations,
Secondary schools.

According to the transnational methodology that all the European partners agreed
during the implementation of the Cultural Tools project the following indicators
and events were analysed and compared.

These indicators applied to the chosen cultural activity in every city had two
different excellent and concrete outcomes as they gave the opportunity of looking
at these activities and initiatives both at local and trasnational level.

At local level their gave the possibility of analysing in a more neutral and
scientific way each initiatives taking into consideration all the indicators
and comparing them on the basis of the number of people involved, on the level
of engagement and commitment of the target groups and the role that the Local
Authority concretely played in fighting against social exclusion in the area.

This last aspect was a very interesting one and the main learning for all the
people involved in the project (public servants, NGOs representatives, the Gate
participation Forum) was the fact that when dealing with deep problems such
as social exclusion and discrimination there is not only a sole culture but
a variegated mix of different cultures – or better forms of culture –
which can really be a powerful trigger for starting an involvement process of
the excluded citizens.

Especially in the case of ethnic minorities it was clear that the exchange among
different cultures and the positive mutual influence of different forms of cultural
expression allowed a deeper knowledge of diversities and a genuine contamination
among different people and traditions.

At trasnational level the opportunity of exchanging know how and information
was a further concrete tools for analysing the local initiatives from a wider
and deeper point of view.

Furthermore every partner had the opportunity of concretely seeing what the
other European cities were doing and experimenting. This was another powerful
way of better understanding the concrete outcomes, as well as the differences,
strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches. This know how also fed
the local reflections and in a virtuous, circular way went back to the trasnational
level for nourishing the trasnational reading of the use of culture(s) in fighting
against social exclusion.

Strenghts

It was evident the use of cultural tools was particularly successful
when the involvement of the communities is assured form the very beginning,
namely from the design phase of a particular event up to the concrete realisation
of it. For Torino if was particularly evident with the performance “The
game of Romeo and Juliet” which, even at national level, is considered
one of the most interesting and successful examples of a holistic approach to
the problems of exclusion by the means of a bottom up form of culture –
which at the end of the experience becomes a real intercultural expression.

The involvement of citizens is fundamental for breaking the sense of exclusion
that marginalised target groups often feel. The participation in the cultural
life is a way for breaking these barriers and to start feeling being part of
a wider and more visible part of a place.

Weaknesses

Culture usually has low investments in terms of resources ( not only
financial, but human ones) and generally the strategy of the City on that are
more focused on an “institutional” culture whose success indicators
are based on “big events” which are usually very expensive both
in their organisation and in the price that public has to pay for attending
them.

Culture is seen as show off and it often becomes a tool only for a small minority
of citizens who can afford high prices for élite performances. In this
context interculture or a bottom up approach to different forms of culture face
many problems in establishing themselves and, for this reason too, the Cultural
Tool Project has been an important step for paving the way of a new way of thinking
and living culture for all the European partners who participated in it.

Torino June 2002