Via Baldinucci. Back in Bovisa.

I’ve found this place absolutely casually. From far away i’ve seen this building a bit higher than what was around it, grey, lonely and with broken windows. Althought what really hit me was a small house right next to it, completely ruined. First of all i try to reach this small building, also because untill now i’ve seen any kind of construction, beside an abandoned house. I pass a gate: on our right there’s a deposit, and right in front of me at 20 meters there’s another gate, with two big dogs that stare at us curious. Right next to them the owner appears, looking at us not too friendly. He opens the gate and lets the dogs free to come close to us. Alessandro loves dogs so he starts cuddling them right away, so i feel a bit safer too and i let them walk around me sniffing my clothes. The owner comes closer, he’s young, more or less of our age. He askes us suspiciously what we want and proud if we are afraid of the dogs, as if we have to. I ask him about the industry next to his property. It was where the scenaries for La Scala use to be produced, close for a long time, cause they moved in a better place. Now once a year there’s the exhibition of Ronconi, Infinities. This news make me appreciate even more the place behind the wall. Obviously, he tells us, clandestines live there now, many of them. So i ask him about the house inside his property, hoping that he’ll invite us in to see it. Instead he doesn’t seem to happy about my question, he says it’s not abandoned, but only in bad shape and nobody lives there, cause it’s to expencive to restore it. Althought it’s not abandoned i would have visited it anyway, but the guy doesn’t seem so friendly after all, as if we touched his dignity. Politely we say goodbye and go towards the main entrance of the abandoned area. The gate is slightly open, there’s no chain. Right there there’s a guy, i’d say from north-Africa, talking on a mobile phone. I guess right away that he must be one of the guys living there, cause he looks at us suspicious when he sees we stop right there. In the same moment an old man stops and tells us “here clandestines live, we can’t take it anymore!”, without us asking anything. I, who always need to justify whatever i do, explain that i’m concerned about te area for my final work in university. The man nods, still upset for what he told us. He goes away the same way he arrived. In the meantime the guy with the mobile phone pretends we’re not there, but with a guilty face, but specially with an investigative look, to assure his home is not in danger. We look inside the gate. Nothin’s moving. I ask Alessandro to stand next to the gate while i take some pictures. But the situation is really calm, so at the end we both enter. I go right, he goes left. In the meantime the guy with the phone enters too and disappears inside the building. No way i’ll go inside knowing there’s somebody in that won’t appreciate my presence. I have to admit he seemed to be ok and for a moment i thought of asking him to guide me inside for a tour, so i wouldn’t invade his space. But the courtyard is beautiful enough, without any need to risk my life.