The joint contribution of grassroots artistic practices to the alternative and vital city. The case of Bologna and Venice (Italy)

The article explores grassroots artistic practices as stances of vital urbanism, intended as the urban dynamics activated from below and from outside established institutions that make a city lively thanks to the heterogenous, adaptive, and ultimately transformative initiatives of its citizens, especially when aggregated in the form of organised associations. Specifically, it focuses on how and why grassroots cultural organisation contribute to the vitality of their city. The research analyses the grassroots cultural milieux of two Italian cities, Bologna and Venice. Despite the local specificities, a thematic analysis has developed themes coherent across the two cases. They are: (1) political conflict; (2) imagining the alternative city; (3) making the alternative city; and finally (4) a discourse about the cultural economy. Ultimately, the findings illustrate how their visions and motivations shape a collective imagery of an alternative city and that their ideals and actions aim not just to keeping the city alive, but to let it evolve and develop.