I live in Italy, a country that has nurtured hundreds of artists, thinkers and makers of beauty during the centuries. In this day and age though, it seems that the political apparatus does everything it can to thwart the natural inclination of Italians towards creativity. If you want to advertise your work, or organize an exposition, sell out in the open, you obviously have to regularize your fiscal position, get a VAT number and all of that, which is fair enough, what is not fair is the amount of money you will have to pay in order to do so. We all know that art doesn't pay very well at least in the beginning, so either you have the capital to start with or you must renounce before even trying. On top of all that the burocracy is a total jungle. In this country there are more laws and categories than in the rest of the world put together, so if you do many different things at the same time there is no way of finding an etiquette for your business and you might end up paying twice for the same thing. I was actually told to give up something to make matters simpler!! What sort of thing is that to be asking from a person that lives for creativity!
I must say I am throroughly disgusted and probably I'll end up going abroad... I don't understand the people of this country any more, everyday there's a new scandal, millions are being robbed from people that barely earn enough wages to get to the end of the month, yet nobody says anything. Have a little laugh when comedians show up politicians and let it be, this seems to be the trend.
If it was up to me I would have the Germans run the country and send the Pope back to Avignon, maybe that way we could start making our way toward the future again!
Good luck to poor Italy...
