Ça marche. Creare uno spazio collettivo camminando per Palermo

Abstract

The paper analyses two marches of resistance in Palermo with references to the public space as in Goheen’s (1998) theses. In the first one, the public space gradually loses relevance and presents the citizens as consumers; in the second one, it remains an arena of the fights of those groups that claim to visibility and recognition. The itinerant ritual of Wu Ming 2 and the last Gay Pride in Palermo are the two kinds of march capable of creating collective spaces. In the former case, the itinerary has made the forgotten traces of history resurface and has linked them to our contemporary themes. In the latter, the attention to the precariousness of bodies has been claimed in a consenting Palermo. On the other hand, the institutional politics of pedestrianisation of the historical centre, by supporting a deep transformation of the public space, have produced a population that is passive and lured by consumption.