Per una cartografia del ‘nuovo' a Napoli. Alcuni luoghi della sperimentazione artistica e teatrale negli anni Sessanta

The radical transformation of the Sixties affected not only politics and social structures, but also artistic thought and processes. On the front of the figurative arts and the scenic dimension - but also of cinema, music, literature - a growing need for refoundation emerges, which leads to the subversion of traditional aesthetic canons and a progressive fall – if not a total downfall – of linguistic boundaries. More and more different specific linguistic codes interact, becoming mixed and contaminated; more and more spaces with different functions become places of encounter and osmotic exchange between codified languages. This ferment crosses the entire country, affecting different geographies; in Naples, in particular, it produced the flowering of extremely significant experiences ranging from visual arts to theatre. There are many places where these two specific codes meet and interact, fuelling artistic-operational dynamics played on an interdisciplinary aesthetic. And many galleries or ‘cantine’ open up to the confrontation with suggestions coming from other subject areas. The aim of this essay is to trace a sort of ‘cartography’ of some Neapolitan places in which this process of ‘reunification’ of the arts takes shape through proposals and attempts at renewal that will gradually define a new linguistic system.