This week, between Teatro alla Scala, the Alfa Romeo museum, Kartell museum, the Brion cemetery, and Tipoteca, an important theme that stuck out to me was the preservation of the past. An important theme in my walk between Torre Velasca and Torre Branca was the tension between modernity and tradition, and in Milan the physical manifestation of this phenomena has inured to our benefit; we are able to participate in the marriage between history and progress. Yet, it is important to preserve a portion of the past in its entirety so that we can continue to experience its beauty and see how we have developed as a society. Each one of aforementioned experiences and activities of the past week has done this, either through preservation (leaving the opera and typography untouched in their grandeur and honoring the deceased) or display (showing the evolution of Kartell plastics and Alpa Romeo cars). To move forward together in a productive, fruitful way, we must remember that it entails vibrant paradox: both conservation and progress.
