Pessoa Luna Park
new concept of traveling cultural park
from 18 September to 16 October 2022
Former Military Hospital – Naples
Pessoa Luna Park lands in the Quartieri Spagnoli of Naples, in the Ex Ospedale Militare in Vico Trinità delle Monache, to redevelop an underdeveloped area of the city, transforming it into an unconventional space for the arts in freedom.
Scheduled for Sunday 18 September, starting at 6 pm, the Neapolitan artist Roxy In The Box will be present at the inaugural event and will present her new installation for the occasion. The Luna Park will be open until 16 October, from Wednesday to Sunday, from 6pm to 1am, with free admission. Far from the classic children’s playground, the Pessoa Luna Park is a constantly evolving space of provocation, where art, mainly expressed in the form of games, has Millennials and Generation Z as its main users. It is part of the “Luna Park Urbano” project, the winner of the IQ tender – The innovation districts of the Municipality of Naples, with the partner Mappina APS. The project is supported by the Agenzia del Demanio – Direzione Generale Campania, owner of the Ex Ospedale Militare and is co-financed by the European Union, European Social Fund, as part of the Metropolitan Cities Operational Program 2014 – 2020. Creating a urban container dedicated to creativity in its most playful aspect, was an idea born in 2019 thanks to Azzurra Galeota and Grazia Scognamiglio, respectively artistic director and president of the Collettivo Pessoa, a group of young people engaged in building bridges between art, ecology, culture and innovation, through interactive experiences and original creative projects.
«We had long been looking for an ideal space for our “little utopias” – says Azzurra Galeota – a driver to convey cultural values in a completely new way. After bringing our unique Luna Park to Angri and then to Salerno, we finally managed to find this place in the heart of the Quartieri Spagnoli of Naples. The Luna Park was preceded by a great phase of self-construction which led to the creation of light architectures whose shape embodies the idea and the use that will be made of the individual games».
This Neapolitan stage of the Pessoa Luna Park includes several important collaborations, among all the one with Roxy In The Box stands out; she signed the graphics of the advertising campaign created together with the Collettivo Pessoa and she is the author of two interactive art installations: an original one, site specific, created for the Luna Park and the well-known Biliardina Trans conceived with Pessoa: a game of sisterhood and a choral tale that brings to the field the stories of 22 women who play football for the first time, side by side.
Whoever crosses the Pessoa Luna Park portal will be transported into a magical atmosphere suspended between the past and the future. Contemporary art installations, theatrical monologues, artworks, a cappella choirs, coin-operated artistic performances, poetry readings, concerts, jam sessions, game tournaments, thrift markets, workshops for adults and children and quality street food .
And, as in any amusement park worthy of its name, Pessoa Luna Park also features its tokens printed in 3D with recycled material directly in the fablab: it is called Marchetta Giusta and it is the only coin circulating in the park.
(Azzurra Galeota)
Pessoa Lunapark 2022 Map
“RICCHIONERS” by Roxy in the Box
The Italian state wants us ricchioni, you heard right, and it’s not even ashamed to say it. The point now is to understand what ricchioni really means. As I told you, it is a polysemic word and there is no other way to explain it than to resort to a few examples. So, I proceed. Dear friends, the Constitution wants us all to be ricchioni as it invites us to civilization and equality and dissuades us from hatred and violence.
A true ricchione is someone who feels free to walk as he pleases, provided that, to do so, he doesn’t have to step on his neighbor; ricchione is someone who uses four pages of complex sentences (with lots of -isms here and there) to make sure that another person doesn’t misunderstand him; ricchione also means to dispose of one’s own body without usurping that of another. Ricchione, again, is that peaceful protester who gets beaten by the policemen to say what he thinks.
Being ricchione is also to believe that a social State is possible; very ricchione, then, is to think that one’s opinion is just one among many and that listening to that of others can help enrich one’s own. To believe that a fair proportion between rights and duties is possible and, even more, to think that inviolable human rights exist, is also ricchione’s. Ricchione, to continue, is someone who thinks that equality is possible and that, in line with the Constitution, if you don’t invade the space of the other, you’ll live for a hundred and twenty years.
Ricchione is also someone who thinks that peace cannot be made with war, because if you give me a slap and I give you a harder one, it is highly probable that the quarrel will continue; if, on the other hand, I react to your slap with a little patience, we find ourselves with one less slap and towards a more desirable truce. We could continue for as many articlesas there are, but, in fact, a general sum can already be glimpsed now. The Italian Constitution wants us all ricchioni, that is, all free to be free, as long as no one gets hurt.
(Azzurra Galeota)
Whatdowedo?
Catch the Recchia (ear)
1. Pay 2 marchette for 3 balls.
2. Try to score in one of the cans.
3. If you hit the jackpot, you win a can from Roxy’s collection, “the recchia is equal for all”.
Recchiometro
1. Pay 1 marchetta to receive the special hammer.
2. Use the hammer on the recchiometro to test how much recchia you have.
Cans label
“BILIARDINA” by Roxy in the Box in collaboration with Pessoa Luna Park
Biliardina is a hymn to balance, to the diversity of bodies, to the stories and lives of 22 extraordinary women. Biliardina is a sisterhood game, it is a choral tale that brings into the field the actions of 22 players, the stories of 22 women who play football for the first time, side by side or face to face. Biliardina is Sofia Loren who plays forward and Tina Pica who plays defense. Biliardina is Sara Carbone who shouts “Goal” and Elsa Morante who asks herself: ” how do you spell it: gol or goal?”. Biliardina is a work written by several hands like the books of the past, when the others were not just ghost writers, but different imaginaries who met to say what, otherwise, always remained on the tip of the tongue. Biliardina is a work by Roxy In the Box and the creators of Pessoa Luna Park. The first is a visual artist who manipulates millions of languages to grasp the polysemic, fruitful and extraordinary power of a word that seems very simple: popular. The others, those who have decided to design an amusement park with the name of a Portuguese poet, are people with clear psychological dramas. So big that they had to be transformed into innovation, into experimentation with new languages to say serious things without breaking the balls. You may break the balls, but only if the intention is to play together. A foosball table born male turned female, a trans foosball table with a series of women lined up, all in a precise order. An order that is not what you think and that is the serial repetition of identical stickers. The order of the Biliardina lays in the balance among the 22 bodies depicted. Each silhouette is different from the other, one is shorter, one has a loose dress, another stands with the cat on her shoulder, another plays sitting because it’s getting late and she is getting old. Each one came down to play as she wanted, in her dress, with her purse. Some are even half naked or covered with white dots. Yes, they are different, but each of them rests on the same pedestal, on the identical piece of colored wood which becomes the symbol of all that matters: the possibility of kicking the ball in the same way, of all playing according to the same rules: from the same height and with the same chances of winning.
(Azzurra Galeota)
HOW TO PLAY?
1. Exchange your marchette tokens at the marchette outlet!
2. Organize the two playing teams
3. Insert 1 token into the foosball coin acceptor
4. Pull the lever, drop the balls and start playing
