“Those pages of the Mattinofaro on the Naples to come”
It continues unabated on Morning tour in the symbolic places of the city. The first historical pages most loved by readers in these first 130 years of everyday life, projected on the monuments, are illuminating the Neapolitan nights: from Maschio Angioino at the San Carlo Theater, from the Cardarelli hospital in Capodimonte, from the seafront to the facade of the Royal Palace in Piazza del Plebiscito, up to Bagnoli. The initiatives of these months will culminate in the event on 25 May, when the milestone will be celebrated with a special event at Court Theater of the Royal Palace.
The Alfa Romeo Tonale blu del Mattino, led by the artist Alessandra Franco, made stops in different districts keeping curious and tourists with their nose upturned. At the Maschio Angioino the first page of the Giro d’Italia, next to a pink bicycle. “Naples has a millenary and stratified history, but also an extraordinary present and a rosy future to build: from this point of view, the role of information is fundamental – explains the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi – Il Mattino experienced its first 130 years of history by innovating in the wake of tradition: this is precisely the path we have before us to respond to the citizens’ priorities without losing our memory. Together, in synergy between national and local institutions, we in fact have the duty to represent the identity of Naples as the capital of the South increasingly projected towards Europe ». Not far away, on the colonnade of Palazzo Reale, Matilde Serao appeared, who together with Edoardo Scarfoglio founded Il Mattino on March 16, 1892. “First of all we are content to host the newspaper event on May 25 – Mario recalls Epifani, director of Palazzo Reale – The facade of the Palazzo Reale remains a symbolic place. Inserting the image of Matilde Serao, a woman of great culture, among the statues of the Kings, is the right way to remember the female figures who have made the history of the city ».
Another bulwark of the city is the “Neapolitan Massimo”: «For me, Il Mattino is a story made of scents of ink and printed paper, a small pleasure of smell, a mix of vanilla and the sweet smell of ethylbenzene, which brings with almonds and chocolate ». Images that run through the mind of Emmanuela Spedaliere, general manager of the San Carlo Theater, who says: “The first memory dates back to childhood, when we slept with grandparents and in the morning between cousins there was the competition to see who arrived first to take the newspaper, which was left under the doormat by the doorman, and brought to grandfather Angelo. I think that Il Mattino for the Neapolitans is a love story that passes from generation to generation, it has always told about ours, our roots. It’s like the San Carlo, a story that belongs to us ». From San Carlo to Capodimonte, where last night the trees in front of Porta Grande were illuminated with images of the rooster, the symbol of the Morning.
Sylvain Bellenger, director of the Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte, he remarks: «“ Journalism has a very large ideal of truth to achieve ”. The phrase of the founder of the Mattino, Matilde Serao, camping on the belvedere of the Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte on the bench “adopted” by the newspaper in October 2017 by joining the wide participation campaign that we launched that year. And the newspapers of the Morning also keep us company in Mario Merz’s work “Onda d’urto”, now visible in the contemporary art section. Print media today is giving way to digital technology, but the mission of information remains the same: to tell the present and collaborate to write the future of the city together. And I am sure that Il Mattino, the daily newspaper of Naples and of the Neapolitans, still continue in close symbiosis with the artistic language and creativity of the city ».
The protagonist of one of the stages of the video art tour was the Cardarelli hospital, with a typed “thank you” for doctors and nurses: “I believe that 130 years represent the strength of a press organ that is a point of reference for the Campania population. and of the city of Naples – dice Giuseppe Longo, general manager of the Cardarelli – The fact of using the symbolic places of Naples to project historical pages brings together a series of values, including art. This strengthens the message that is given to the city ». In Bagnoli, on the other hand, the image of Giancarlo Siani, journalist of the Mattino killed by the Camorra on 23 September 1985. «The story of Giancarlo has strengthened the link between the city and the newspaper – highlights the deputy of the Democratic Party Paolo Siani, brother of Giancarlo – It is an essential part of the story of the Mattino. It is today 130 years after the birth of the newspaper, but it will also be so at 230 and 330, it can only be like this “.