giorgiaboi

The social challenge

October 11, 2017 giorgiaboiLeave a comment

“You need to try this place”, said my hippie friend Sam, “it’s a vegan restaurant, it’s socially responsible and there are no prices on the menu!”. How is it possible? The staff is composed by volunteers, the food is partly donated, everybody is welcome to sit at the table and customers pay by donation according to how they feel and how much they can afford. Easy.

This is how I came across the wonderful world of Lentil as Anything, a big family that I’m happy to be part of.

Founded in 2000 by Shanaka Fernando, Lentil as Anything is a social experiment based on the idea that everyone deserves a place at the table. A pure principle of inclusion, meaning that you can enter the restaurant, sit close to anybody and feel welcome. No matter your social status, your background or your economic situation. No matter if you are broken, nerd, gay, fat, fit, vegan, breatharian, gluten intolerant, gluten addict, disable, anarchist, hippie, vip, homeless, crazy. Whatever, there’s a place for you.

In every tradition, eating represents a shared moment, when you sit with your peers, friends or family, spend time together, cook together, have a chat, relax, sometimes even argue. But our city lifestyle makes us far away and alone. You don’t usually sit at the same table with strangers, or talk to people from another table. But if you stop a second and think about it, it’s sad.

Coming from Sri Lanka and having travelled extensively in third world countries, Shanaka wanted everybody to be able to share a meal, stories, skills. Social justice, open mind, meaningful change. In 2000 he opened the first tiny cute restaurant in Melbourne St Kilda, and from there it’s history. Now there are three restaurants in Melbourne, one in Sydney and there are rumors of future openings around the world.

And it’s not only about food. It’s also community space, restaurant, cafe, workshop area, brainstorming studio, talent playground, personality development gym, network field, meeting place. You can find awesome vegan food with always different delicious recipes and high quality presentation, served by smiling volunteers in a friendly creative environment. You can read the weekly calendar or just pop into the workshop space and join an acro yoga class, learn how to do crochet, play with pencils and paint, listen to live music and much more. All run by volunteers, all paid by donation, all for fun.

It’s a place where you feel welcome, accepted for what you are, challenged to improve your skills, free to do let your personality flow. A place where you will meet amazing people, listen to stories that you couldn’t imagine, found synergies that you didn’t expect, maybe even change your life.

And it’s not-for-profit.

Postcards from Down Under

October 4, 2017 giorgiaboiLeave a comment

Australia-surfers

Finally I’m back writing and ready to share my thoughts from Down Under. A lot of things changed completely in these months in Australia, life seems to spin faster when you are far away. Surrounded by novelty and awesomeness, I’ve been watching carefully how is life on the opposite side of the world. It surprised me, inspired me, thrilled me, sometimes it even made me jealous or upset. And curious, as always. In this big and relatively empty land, people live more relaxed and with different values. Let’s be honest, nothing is perfect. But even if it’s not heaven, there are a few ideas that I will take home with me.

Stay easy. From physical appearance to everyday stress, the common attitude is very calm. You can feel it walking in the street and observing people passing by with multicolored hair, barefoot or with sandals in every season, diverse or eccentric styles and outfits that in old-fashioned Europe we would quickly classify as inappropriate. There’s much more important things to care of. You don’t feel judged, you are free to be as you are.

Self expression is much smoother if you don’t see eyes looking at you and imaginary fingers pointing at every imperfection you may show. All immersed in doing our own business, you can let your energies flow and spend your time more effectively. You can be creative. You can find your way without listening too much to outer expectations. You can try new paths.

Probably history played a big role in this easygoing and open Australian attitude. In a country mainly built by immigrants, everybody deserves a second chance. Everybody can try its best and dream to be successful. Also, it’s totally fine that life can have ups and downs. You can be a businessman and then work as a waiter for some weeks while you look for a new job in a higher position. You can live in a car or a camper van for a while. You can quit your career and go back to studying at any time. Whatever, it’s your life. Use it.

As long as you are happy, it’s always positive to be able to choose a path freely. What is the problem if you change your mind? There’s always time to make mistakes, learn and move forward. The world will keep going and the future will bring something new. A progress, ultimately. Experiences make you rich. Life goes beyond your working hours. Being temporary, the job you have is not the most important thing on earth. Free time is sacred. Sport is essential. Surfing. Staying in nature. Camping. Barbecues. Drinks with friends.

Conscious that even your brilliant career can have lower moments, you can better empathize with people that have less. Homeless people, for example. You can think about social issues and use some of your happy time to actively support the community. The value of help, physical or economical, is something that I see here much more than back home. And I hope it will spread without boundaries.

Amazing life as a heritage enthusiast

January 30, 2017 giorgiaboiLeave a comment

sunglasses-kid

In the amazing years of my job as a travel journalist, I’ve attended dozens of organized trips and all of them included both a cultural and a natural visit. History, art and nature can tell about the essence of a place as nothing else. Maybe only food. And of course, when you organize a trip or a travel, you try to see all the best of that area and fit as much experiences as possible in a few days.

The bike tour and the picnic in the enormous Hagaparken in Stockholm. The guided visit of the National Museum of Ireland, the Trinity College and the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. The astonishing exploration of the idyllic Akama peninsula in Cyprus. The sight of the historic centre and the history of the procession in Trapani, Sicily. Even when I was going among Alpine Huts in the very north of Italy, I ended up in a fascinating castle surrounded by mountains with a lovely Christmas market in it. In Slovenia, I visited places that I bet very few locals have seen.

In fact, as a local, I haven’t visited so many places in Liguria, my hometown, in Milan, my adoptive city, in London, my favorite, and in Florence, my current home. A good friend of mine, art historian and passionate to life, always tells me “let’s hire a car and go visit the wanders in the nearby”. It’s true. You don’t have to be in another country or in another region to be a tourist and to make interesting discoveries. You can be a tourist in your city.

Imagine how it would be if people would regularly visit cultural and natural spots in their nearby with the thrilling emotion of the discovery. If we look at our natural and cultural heritage with the same respect and wonder of a tourist (a good one), we would be more likely to preserve it. Heritage is the beauty, enthusiasm is the key. My key.

Now I’m moving to Sydney (Australia) and I’ll be a sort of tourist that tries to become local around there. I’ll do my best, stay tuned.

Surfing on cultural waves

January 13, 2017January 13, 2017 giorgiaboiLeave a comment

ocean-waves

Everyone can publish online. You can post your photos on Facebook and Instagram, you can throw stones on Twitter, write a blog, upload a video on Youtube. However, informative publishing is different. Take some interesting piece of knowledge, analyze it, find the story in it and tell it in an attractive and insightful way is much better in terms of cultural growth, but also much more complicated. And the new media technologies let us do all this in such fabulous ways.

There’s an ocean of possibilities. Cultural institutions like museums, galleries, archives and libraries are an incredible source of knowledge that is there, ready to be turned on, remixed and shared.

Institutions like the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam decided to surf the wave and communicate more effectively through new resources and innovative strategic plans. With a new website, specific web-based initiatives and revolutionary ideas like making the entire collection available online, including a nice tool to create and download a personalized wallpaper, the Rijksmuseum substantially increased its attendance and became one of the most visited museums in the world, “a world class institution of Art and History”. As the Chairman of the museum’s Board wrote after the departure of the protagonist of this revolution Wim Pijbes in 2016, “Following the April 2013 reopening the visitor numbers doubled to 2.4 million in 2015. Youth attendance more than doubled, reaching 325,000 in the last year. The special attention given to innovative forms of education has become one of the corner stones of attracting future generations.” This means not only more audience engagement and the speed of culture, but also more tickets and more money for the museum and the economy.

Imagine what would happen if every cultural institution in the world, from the smallest to the largest, would do the same thing, or even better. Providing insights and attractive content like this beautiful digital exhibition from the Städel Museum in Frankfurt on Monet and Impressionism or the one from the MOMA in New York on Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and this engaging web-based project for kids #metkids by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Hopefully we will get there.

Also, I invite you to visit the digital exhibition that I created for the APICE archive of the University of Milan, titled “John Alcorn Graphic and Illustrator“: click here and enjoy.

Giving serendipity a chance

December 10, 2016 giorgiaboiLeave a comment

strolling-around

How beautiful it is when you find something perfectly in harmony with your mood, your interests and your needs, by chance. You are lost in your thoughts and… there it is. A light appears in your road, changing your perspective and making your day happier. It can be the wind slightly moving the leaves of a tree. It can be the smile of a stranger passing by. It can be the sound of a piano playing in an indefinite apartment nearby. It can be the unexpected smell of fresh bread in the street behind a bakery. Those moments are little presents that remind us to appreciate every detail of life.

Too often we are absorbed in the digital stream and we don’t even notice the stimulus coming from the world around. Even when we are wearing the tourists‘ shoes, we can’t expect the trip to be smooth and interesting in every minute. We need to give our inner compass some help. Move the head from the map or phone, look around, walk beyond traditional routes, read residents’ tips, smell the atmosphere, talk with people, ask suggestions.

A few weeks ago I attended a conference where Gianpaolo Nuvolati, Professor of Sociology at the Bicocca University in Milan, presented a project based on the concept of Flanerie. Just as Charles Beaudelaire and other 19th century French poets, a group of students went idling about in a specific area of the city with the sole purpose to live the best of that space. With the help of a guide and a dossier, they learned how to discover the city following a personal narrative, in a way that recalls a flânerie metropolitaine.

Flâneur (pronounced: [flɑnœʁ]), from the French noun flâneur, means “stroller”, “lounger”, “saunterer”, or “loafer”. Flânerie is the act of strolling, with all of its accompanying associations.

With no schedule, no expectations, no prejudice, the flâneur looks around, notices the details, smells the air, feels the essence of a district. Not without reason it has become the archetypal symbol of the modern urban experience. However, strolling around is not enough to give serendipity a real chance. What really matters is being mindful, living the present moment, having an active and child-like approach, interacting with the surroundings and behaving spontaneously.

“What people call serendipity sometimes is just having your eyes open.” Jose Manuel Barroso