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Torino, Porta Palazzo

Filippo Macelloni

A game of reflections, where also citizens play a role while observing the city change.


"Torino, Porta Palazzo" narrates the delicate process of transformation that an unfinished new building undergoes and focuses on its integration within a complex urban context with a unique awareness and a rare sensitivity to the specific issues of the project. Throughout the continuous glass façade of the Textile Center pavilion, designed by Massimiliano Fuksas and Doriana Mandrelli for the municipality of Turin, Filippo Macelloni's camera explores the relationships between the community in Porta Palazzo's quarter and this brand new project.

Everyday life episodes appear before the spectators' eyes as reflections projected on this big mirror surface. While they walk through the square, citizens, local residents as well as occasional passers-by, traditional shop-keepers, students and immigrants see themselves reflected in the overlapping glass layers that cover the whole building. The film seems to suggest that they can even stop by and think about their own stories and directions. Initial distrust of this new presence in the usual scenery appears slowly replaced by slight curiosity. This video also shows how the city skyline itself and the adjacent buildings are reflected in the glass of the front. The new Textile Center is narrated as a true interface towards the square as well as a reflected image of it.

The director Filippo Macelloni, after making other videos on the work of Massimiliano Fuksas, outlines how this important intervention inserts itself within one of the most interesting and lively of places in Turin. The project does not interfere with the existing social nor architectural fabrics. He doesn't show explicitly the whole building, the linear architecture of the pavilion - that seems to offer a contemporary reinterpretation of the Juvarrian architecture in the area - is only actually mentioned in the video. Macelloni instead highlights the choice of glass as the most important material of this project for its function as a filter between contemporary architecture - with its innovative solutions - and a traditional context. Fragments of the new Clothing Market and of the life that flows right in front of this glass facade are explored at different moments of the day and at different speeds, until the end of the day when the outdoor market closes.

Credits

Architect: Massimiliano Fuksas Architetto
Mentioned project: Porta Palazzo Exhibition Hall (2006)
Project location: Turin, Italy

Italy 2004
Duration: 6'03''

Selected for SCRIPT, the 2005 edition of the BEYOND MEDIA Festival organized by Image.