So far because of Coronavirus we have collectively lost our freedom, social skills, mental sanity and living rooms (currently turned into multi-purpose office spaces / workshops / gyms / classrooms). But there is something else we are losing - cultural spaces.
At the end of March and after an inspection involving the local authorities and the Civil Protection, the Officine Grandi Riparazioni, better known simply as OGR, in Turin, were chosen to be turned into a temporary hospital for Coronavirus patients.
Located in the heart of the city, between the Porta Nuova and Porta Susa railway stations, the Officine Grandi Riparazioni (literally: Large Locomotive Repair Depot) are a monumental industrial complex from the 1800s, used to repair locomotives and wagons. Closed in the 1990s, the complex was restored, requalified and reopened in 2017 to host a variety of cultural activities, from exhibitions to music gigs and events of performing arts.
Before Coronavirus the Turin-based venue had scheduled an exhibition of Trevor Paglen's works that tackled our relationship with Space and the politics that govern its colonization. Paglen's Space investigation questioned the relationship between contemporary art and science by pushing the audience to "re-envision" Space as a place of possibility.
The exhibition was obviously cancelled when lockdown was announced in March in Italy and the OGR venue was closed like all the other cultural institutions, museums and galleries in Italy. Towards the end of February, as Piedmont became one of the Italian regions (together with Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Veneto) that were hit by the largest Coronavirus outbreak outside Asia, it became vital to start looking for spaces where field hospitals may have been created.
Being a requalified, well-connected state-of-the-art structure with a kitchen and vast spaces, the monumental OGR venue was soon considered as a space for medical possibilities. The temporary hospital that will be set up in these spaces will occupy the Sala delle Fucine and will be available in two weeks' time (works started yesterday) to treat patients with mild Coronavirus symptoms (there will be 100 beds available here).
The CRT Foundation behind the Turin-based cultural institution was keen to offer their spaces and felt this was an absolute priority: "The OGR was asked to help restoring the most precious asset in life - people's health - and it is our duty to give our contribution," the OGR General Director and Secretary of the CRT Foundation Massimo Lapucci stated in a press release.
So from a repair depot for locomotive maintenance and from a public space for culture, the OGR will temporary turn into a space to restore public health. But at the end of the emergency, the OGR will go back to its cultural function, so creativity is temporarily just suspended.
Now let's hope that when the Coronavirus emergency is over, local authorities will remember this example when cultural organisations may ask for spaces (it is always a nightmare to get funds and spaces for artists and organisations interested in doing cultural activities) and that art will be more welcome in hospitals as well via installations and events with artists. After all, while art may not physically heal, it can do miracles when it comes to soothing the mind and soul.
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