Antonio Ottomanelli on the Montanelli statue and the nature of public space

In a 2020 article on Artribune, architect and photographer Antonio Ottomanelli reflects on the debate around the vandalism of the Indro Montanelli statue in Milan's Porta Venezia gardens, arguing that the act by two teenagers should not be overburdened with political meaning. He contrasts it with the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square on April 9, 2003, which he visited in September 2012, and with the demolition of the Kombetar Theatre in Tirana and the burning of the Third Precinct police station in Minneapolis on May 28, 2020. Ottomanelli defends the right to free action and the unpredictability of public space, which he calls an 'infrastructure of revolution.' He criticizes the Sentinelli group's proposal to remove the Montanelli statue or add a statue of Destà with the inscription 'consort' as a sign of atrophied critical thinking. He emphasizes that the two students' act is minor compared to real conflicts, and that the fight for civil rights must not be reduced to cosmetic gestures.