July 4, 2013
Milena Kaneva
Milena Kaneva is a smiling and bright person, a filmmaker and film director who in 2006 produced one of the most inspiring films about Burma, Total denial.
The main characters of her film are activists Ka Hsaw Wa and his wife, and they wanted to make the difference by documenting how Karen villagers had been treated in Burma. The case came from the building of a pipeline that Unocal, a former oil company, that was built next to the Andaman sea to connect Burma to Thailand: Karen villagers ‘who stood in the way to progress’ – to say it with the oil company’s managers words – have paid their opposition with all sort of human-right violations.
Ka Hsaw Wa engaged and led an 8 years lawsuit agains Unocal and 15 Karen vilagers sued Unocal for human-right abuses with the support of Burmese military.
This is an inspiring story, the story of the victory of Ka Hsaw Wa and the victory of Karen vilagers who have seen recognised their rights in an US court.
Milena has followed this story for 5 years, between 2000 – 2005. Milena’s career yet is not that of a ‘classic’ filmmaker or journalist: she started as an actress, but then her interest towards society and stories that can inspire people has taken the lead and, inspired by the Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and lending the title of her book, she funded the Free from Fear Foundation. The foundation’s aim – as stated in the website ‘is to use the power of film, free media and other initiatives to educate and empower people about human rights and to denounce human rights violations everywhere. By telling the truth we remove the veil of fear.’
Something Milena already did and keeps doing, lending herself and her work to the cause of Burmese people and to those who are oppressed.
When She cames in, she is curious and excited – she immediately loved the concept of a LEGO based interview, and the whole interview had been a relaxed engaging and inspiring talk.
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Posted in Activism, Creativity Project, Journalism, Legoview |
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May 24, 2013
Architect Gianni Cagnazzo
Gianni Cagnazzo is an Architect. But that’s not enough to fully catch his polyhedric and enthusiastic attitude towards his job and his passions. Gianni Cagnazzo is president of IEM (Indoor Environment Management) and ANAB (National Association of Bio-ecological Architecture), member of the International Academy of Colour, he is professor in bio-ecological architecture, colour design and humanisation of the built space, he gives lectures at various institutes, including ANAB IBN (Institut fur Baubiologie und Oekologie – Neuberern), UNITRE, University of Turin… Colour is his passion, therefore the question was certainly due: What is colour?
He knows how my kind of interviews work and he starts building. When he is done, he explains me his model.
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May 17, 2013
Palestine seen with Israeli eyes: Ariel’s model
Ariel is an Israeli professional, holds an MBA and has degrees in sociology, anthropology and Jewish history. He was born in Argentina and has been living in Israel since 1993. We met in Tel Aviv, on a sunny day at the end of December 2011. After we talked about Israel, it was time for me to see Palestine with his eyes.
‘Build me Palestine’ I ask him.
‘Palestinians… Palestinians…’ he sobs while building his model.
When he finishes, he looks at me:
‘This man is the Palestinian… they have peace in their mind…’
I look at the model and in the attempt to get a full vision of it and to take pictures I turn it so that the minifig could face me, but Ariel stops me. I am puzzled and ask ‘Why?’
‘This man is the Palestinian and he is looking toward the opposite direction, opposite to the way… They have peace in their mind, symbolised by the green bricks…’ he shows me ‘…they are dreaming about peace… No’ – he suddenly stops and corrects himself – ‘it’s not peace, they are dreaming about normalisation and about a free state, it’s not really peace… It’s like Egypt, we have peace with Egypt since 1981, it’s been 30 years. But that’s not real peace though. 10 years ago I went to Egypt, it was in 1991 and I didn’t feel peace like I do here, they don’t like us, let’s say. You won’t see Egyptians here. They don’t come here…’
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Posted in Activism, Israel and Palestine, Journalism |
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May 10, 2013
Dr Rauf Azar – Beit Sahour medical centre’s Director
I have met Dr Rauf Azar at Beit Sahour medical centre. He is the director of the clinic since 2005. The clinic is part of the Health Work Committees in Palestine, a no profit NGO which main goal is to provide health services to the inhabitants of occupied Palestinian territories, with a special focus on patients from marginalised groups, like poor people, women, children and people with special needs. ‘This centre was founded as a clinic’ Dr Azar says, ‘then it expended and became a day care surgery centre and we are on our way to establish here a small hospital for general and reconstructive surgery’. The reconstructive surgery will be the first hospital dealing with reconstruction and it will be the first one in the Palestinian territories and it will be developed in partnership together with the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive surgery in Bari (Italy) and with prof. Michele Pascone.
Then I go straight to the point, and ask Dr Azar What is Palestine?
He does not say a word for a while. Then he looks at the bricks and without even touching them, he firmly says ‘Palestine is nothing here…’.
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Posted in Activism, Israel and Palestine, Journalism |
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May 3, 2013
Francesca Valan – Industrial Designer and Colour expert
Francesca Valan, an Italian industrial designer, is internationally considered one of the most passionate and experienced colour experts. One of the key problems, when it comes to colour and architecture, is that colour is something that architects add at the end of the design. She strongly disagrees on such an approach and after telling us, with the bricks, of course, what is colour, I asked her about Architecture. What is Architecture?
She stares at the bricks for a while and then she starts building. When she has finished, she looks at me
F. Valan – Model 1 ~ Architecture
and at the bricks and recalling the question – what is Architecture? – she simply says: ‘Rules. Geometric rules. Axes. Vertical and horizontal axes. But the main thing, it’s depletion of chromatic and material elements in favour of formal elements.’
I look at her model: it’s an interesting one, as there are a number of elements and they are all detached. ‘What are these elements you have built here?’ I ask her.
‘Volumes. These are volumes and not architecture. The yellow one, for instance, it’s a solid build following formal criteria I do not know, with improper chromatic criterion. Because colour in architecture is always impoverished. It’s kind of too obvious, if there’s any logic, this is a trivialising one.’
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April 19, 2013
Ciro Pirondi talks about Heritage using the bricks
This LegoView was recorded during Restauro 2013, the main event focusing on restoration, so the question was almost due. What does a well known Architect as Ciro Pirondi, director of the Escola da Cidade in São Paulo (Brazil), think about Heritage? The question, as ever, needs to be answered my way, with the bricks. I ask the question to Mr. Pirondi, put the bricks in front of him and let him to play, allowing ideas to connect and to construct a new vision. While he builds, he sings Agua de Marcio ‘It’s a Brazilian very popular song…’ he says smiling, while he builds and enjoys the process. [Watch the Video]
When he is done, I ask him to tell me something about his model, about Heritage.
Heritage and Nature as built by Arch. Ciro Pirondi
‘This is an allegory representing a bridge where men should find their balance and seek for a balance with nature… this green’ – he says showing me the green bricks – ‘represents nature’.
And then he goes on ‘I think this is a need for the 21st century’s cities… They need to find a bridge that can bring back the balance between mankind and natural nature…. ‘
The bricks and shapes are detached in his model, the human figure is not connected to any part of the model and I ask him why is that.
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Posted in Architecture, Journalism, Legoview, Video |
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March 29, 2013
Ciro Pirondi came to Ferrara, in Italy, to present an exhibition dedicated to Niemeyer at Restauro 2013 and here it is, where we met.
I ask him to introduce himself. He looks at me and smiles gently – ‘I am an architect’ – he says humbly – ‘and I am emotional to be here, as this is where my father comes from… from Emilia…’
He is a kind man, very gentle. I explain him about the interviewing process, he smiles curious and when I ask him, he just plays with the bricks.
I ask him about Niemeyer. He looks at his model for a while, and makes some adjustments.
‘To talk about Niemeyer, I need a tower with curves… lots of curves, as Niemeyer loved curves…something like this!’ he says showing me the model.
‘Niemeyer used to say that he loved curves a lot, because curves reflect Einstain’s universe, they reflect the loved woman, and they remind Rio de Janeiro’s mountains… And he really loved curves. ‘ And by keeping the model in his hands and looking at it, he goes on.
Posted in Architecture, Journalism, Legoview, Video |
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January 7, 2013
Lego Interviews produce new ideas
LEGO-interviews are an innovative investigative method to delve into reality developed by Patrizia Bertini starting from the basic theoretical principles of constructionism and from a deep knowledge and experience with underlying LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP).
This interviewing method has been developed to challenge traditional journalism, as an attempt to explore the world through other people’s perception of reality and their views.
Journalistic interviews are generally based on well defined dynamics, on journalists’ capacity and on a constant tension between the interviewer and the interviewees. There is a large literature about this and there are experts who specifically train politicians and influent public people on how to handle and conduct interviews in order to dominate the conversation and to provide a good and safe image of themselves. And there are also a number of books and essays that teach journalists how to make effective interviwes. Everything is codified, recognisable and known.
LEGO-interviews’ challenge is that of radically changing the psychological and relational dynamics between the journalist and the interviewee so that the cognitive processes underlying the interaction are completely different: the interviewer and the interviewee are not anymore opponents but they collaborate, they literally construct the interview together with an original process that produces unexpected contents which most the time surprise the interviewees too.
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Posted in Journalism, Methodology |
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December 12, 2012
After the pic, here it is a fun clip of what happened during the LegoInterview with Francesca Valan.
It’s a short clip, just to make you feel the atmosphere and let you have a taste of the experience.
A bit thanks to Pietro for the amazing editing!
[I apologise, the video is available only in Italian now – the whole LegoView will be available shortly, with English Subtitles].
Posted in Architecture, Journalism, Video |
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December 12, 2012
Picture taken at University of Ferrara during the LegoView with Francesca Valan, colour designer.
Not a colour designer, but THE colour designer who worked for LEGO. Could I find a better match and a more creative and bubbling person to talk about colours and architecture?
A big thank you to Francesca and the guys, superb as ever. Video coming soon!
Posted in Architecture |
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