Fourteen years in Milan, then the eviction, and now a new house in Monza, in the Cederna district, within the walls of a former library that had remained empty for too long.
On 30 April the municipal council approved a resolution to allocate the property in via Zuccoli 16 to the Franco Fossati ETS Foundation, which it would like to build there WOW Monzathe International Comics Study Center and Archive, direct heir of the historian WOW space closed in Milan after the expiry of the municipal concession. The news was confirmed by the official press release from the Municipality.
What does the project involve?
The building (we can appreciate it in the image below) housed the neighborhood civic library and is located in an area that the Municipality already defines as the center of “extensive urban redevelopment activity”. The resources allocated in the budget amount to 850 thousand euros, to which external co-financing may be added. The redevelopment works are estimated to take approximately twelve months.
The path that will lead to the definitive green light is not yet concluded. Before the final agreement, a public notice will be published, lasting thirty days, for co-planning with Third Sector bodies, followed by the signing of the partnership agreement.
From Milan to Brianza
The Franco Fossati Foundation holds one of the most important comics collections in Europe, with over 500 thousand pieces including comic books, original drawings and archive materials. Among the rarest pieces, the first issue of Corriere dei Piccoli of 1908 and the complete collection of Mickey Mouse since 1932.
WOW Spazio Fumetto was inaugurated in Milan in 2011, in a building in Viale Campania granted by the Municipality (image below). The closure, which occurred last year, followed months of disputes linked to management costs and tender procedures, with an accumulated debt towards the Milanese administration.
In the meantime, the city of Desio has made some rooms in Via Galli available for the temporary storage of the archive, waiting for the Monza headquarters to become operational.
Institutional voices
The project is part of a broader process of regeneration of the neighbourhood, which has already seen the creation of a community house and the renovation of the municipal pharmacy. These are the words of Deputy Mayor Egidio Longoni:
We make a portion of public heritage that has a valuable social and aggregative history available to an important project. This ambitious operation adds to the numerous services redeveloped in recent times in the Cederna and Cantalupo neighbourhood, including the Community House and the renovated new municipal pharmacy: for this reason the project fits into the context of a neighborhood on the move, bringing its own qualified cultural and social value.
The will of the institutions is to make the new museum an important cultural reference point for the entire community, as highlighted by the Councilor for Culture Arianna Bettin:
The launch of a new cultural center in a decentralized neighborhood is an operation with a strong political content. Returning to animate a now abandoned space through an art form like comics – high and popular at the same time – makes it even more powerful. The comic manages to speak to everyone, from the little ones to the elderly, because it is extraordinarily capable of involving and touching deeply. For many, including me, it is art that taught them to read or draw. It is that art that you can carry with you as a child and that still makes you dreamers as adults. Bringing a comics center to Monza was, in fact, a dream for many and with this advice we want to make it come true.
It remains to be seen whether the bureaucratic times will live up to expectations. To date, the process involves a public notice to be created, a partner to be identified and, if all goes well, at least twelve months of construction work. The comic has finally found a home, only the details of the rental contract are missing to unpack.
