Like the textures that make jeans one of the world’s best-known fabrics, so in the streets of downtown Genoa, the City’s action to breathe new life into the caruggi is taking shape with the “jeans street” and “Hub-In.” On the one hand, funds for innovation, creative entrepreneurship and social inclusion, and on the other “GenovaJeans,” which believes in the same values and translates them into reality: such as environmental sustainability related to the responsible production and consumption of jeans, the most polluting fabric ever, or the new trend of “refashion,” the art that gives new life to used clothes.
Hub-In: a 75-thousand-euro call to fund projects of highly innovative enterprises and start-ups in the downtown area
As part of the Hubs of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Transformation of Historic Urban Areas project, the Genoa City Council has opened the call inviting proposals that promote innovation, creative entrepreneurship and social inclusion in the areas from Via Prè to Piazza Banchi, as an action of the “Caruggi Integrated Plan” that falls under the “Commerce” Operational Axis. Pilot actions are financed, characterized by a high rate of innovativeness, capable of preserving and enhancing cultural heritage, creating local conviviality and supporting the development and innovation of economic activities. The subjects covered by the call are Microenterprises, SMEs, Innovative Start-ups, Innovative SMEs, Innovative Start-ups with a social vocation, third sector subjects, with a total economic funding of 75,000 euros.
Art installations on showcases in the “jeans street”
On the same wavelength are the art installations on the portcullises in the “jeans street,” as part of the 2023 edition of GenovaJeans, which takes place Oct. 5-8. After the zero edition in 2021, the City of Genoa is returning to dedicate four days to the values, creativity, innovation and culture of jeans, which owes its name to the city of Genoa, where it was born..
A “pop” language was chosen for the information campaign, capable at the same time of encrypting and decrypting that intergenerational message that GenovaJeans wants to convey to everyone in order to share key messages and values with the city.
It is up to the images to raise the curtain on the 2023 edition with five shots resulting from the creativity of Genoese artist photographer Fabio Accorrà with graphics by Giordano Panini, shot on posters and banners for social and video channels.
Fabio Accorrà’s biography. From Genoa, he approached photography in the 1990s by developing his first rolls of film and using Polaroid. In 2019 he published The colors of Japan published by Erga. In 2020, the photographic exhibition “The Colors of Japan” at the Edoardo Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art in Genoa. Juror in the Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest with Wikimedia Italia for the Abruzzo Region in the 2019 and 2020 editions. In May 2021, he published “The Colors of Genoa” (Erga Editions), a photo book about the beauty of his beloved city. In spring 2022 he participates with one of his photographic works dedicated to Venice in the group exhibition “Artisti d’Italia” at Villa Reale in Monza curated by Vittorio Sgarbi. In June 2022 he published his third photographic book, “Venice Colors and Words of Silence” (Erga Edizioni), a photographic reportage that recounts Venice as it had never been seen, deserted in the last lockdown.
The images chosen for the GenovaJeans campaign also become a real art installation in the “jeans street“, the urban artery of medieval origin that runs from Via Prè to Via del Campo, to Fossatello and Via San Luca, the scene of the urban and social regeneration action put in place by the City of Genoa. Shutters painted blue, with eco-friendly paints, reminiscent of the indigo that was used to dye moleskin later called “jeans”; alternating with the shutters of closed businesses, which host Accorrà’s colorful photographs.
The shutter map: via di Prè at 156r, 114r, 50r, 34r; via San Luca at 21-23-25r and 35-37r. The blue-painted shutters: via di Prè at numbers 45r, 16-18r, via di Fossatello at numbers 27r, 2r and via S. Luca at numbers 67-65r
It will be their daily use, when they return to mark the opening and closing times, that will fade the images, a sort of seal of assurance that the regenerative effect of beauty and art has been accomplished, giving new life to the “jeans street.”
