As you descend into stazione Toledo, a blue mosaic ceiling wraps you in the magic of a pointillist cone of light. A few hundred metres away, all your senses are challenged as stazione Università’s psychedelic floors morph beneath your feet. It sounds unreal, especially if you’re used to travelling the cash-strapped transit systems of many big cities. In Naples, Italy, however, a major program of architecture, art and archaeology — the “three As” — animates the public transportation network.
Known for many of the wrong reasons, but also for its remarkable heritage and beauty, Naples embarked on the formidable infrastructure undertaking in the 1980s. From the start, the idea was to revamp the city’s image while upgrading and expanding its subway system. Sixteen stations were targeted along Linea 1 and Linea 6, both under the management of Metropolitana di Napoli, a private consortium created in 1976. The truly innovative idea: inviting renowned architects and artists, from Italy and elsewhere, to take part in this revitalization.
Surprisingly, few published an interview with two of the main players: Ennio Cascetta, who acted as adviser, then CEO and finally chairman of Metropolitana; and art critic and curator Achille Bonito Oliva, who led Metropolitana’s artistic direction. Both attributed the program’s success to a climate of “continuity” and “transparency” enabled by 30 years of stability at the municipal level, and an enduring collaboration between municipal leaders and their counterparts at the regional and provincial levels. “The idea,” Cascetta explains in the interview, “came from politicians who had a ‘noble’ vision of the city. We faced a lot of criticism: ‘Naples is a city of beggars and you allow yourselves great architecture, you allow yourselves contemporary art…’”
