La Scala in Milan repainted by environmental activists – Liberation
An eminent cultural symbol, La Scala in Milan was the victim of a paint attack on Wednesday morning. A blue and pink facelift of the entrance to the opera, orchestrated by five movement activists Last generation (Ultimate Generation in Italian) which took place early this morning. If the police quickly arrested the activists, and the maintenance team took charge of the cleaning, the activists had time to pass banners on request it was written “Latest Generation – No gas and no coal”. A claim already expressed in previous actions of the group.
In a press release, Last Generation justifies its choice: “We have decided to spray La Scala with paint to ask the politicians who will attend tonight’s performance to stop playing ostrich politics and to intervene to save the population.” The timing has obviously been well demonstrated: several personalities will be present at the prestigious Milanese opera this evening for the opening gala of the musical season, pointing many cameras towards the venue for the occasion. In particular the head of government, Giorgia Meloni, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, or even the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
A new generation of activists
Invested in the environmental fight, the collective explains that “The economic and environmental situation is getting worse day by day” evoking “the tragic situation of the Italian people, victims of the cataclysm of Ischia and betrayed by the indifference of the government”. Reference to deadly landslide on the island of Ischiaon November 26, improved, among other things, by deforestation and massive urbanization which plagues the spa village where the disaster occurred.
The operation punch at La Scala is the last of the collective which attacks the works of various European museums. Among the targets of these new climate activists, the statue of the Laocoön this summer in the Vatican to which a handful of them had glued themselves, or the painting death and life by Gustav Klimt covered in paint on November 15. Three days later, the 1975 BMW repainted by Andy Warholexhibit in Milan, was covered with eight kilos of flour.
The outbursts of the group of environmental activists, present in several European countries, are part of a new form of claim. A practice also shared by other environmental movements including Just Stop Oil in the United Kingdom or Extinction Rebellion in France. Very criticized, the activists claim actions which do not aim to damage the works, but to draw attention to the environmental disaster in progress.
Like the incident of the day which disrupts the opening of the season at La Scala while the work chosen for the first performance is already making headlines. This is the work Boris Godunov by Modeste Moussorgski, a parable on the dictatorship of the tsars which echoes the other burning subject of the news: the war in Ukraine. The idea, which had however germinated three years ago, well before the war, angered the Ukrainian consul in Milan, Andrii Kartysh. But for the director of La Scala, Dominique Meyer, there is no question of canceling: “We are not apologizing for anyone, we are performing an opera which is a masterpiece of art history.” A way of saying that art should not be politicized? Last Generation activists seem convinced of the contrary.