La Cecla, Minnella
THE APE CAR
THE ONLY POP WAY TO TRAFFIC
illustrated b/n and colour – photos by Melo Minnella
Franco La Cecla (Palermo 1950), anthropologist and urban theorist, has taught Cultural Anthropologist at Berkeley, Paris, Venice, Bologna and Milan.
Melo Minnella (Mussomeli, 1937) first published his photos in the 1950s in the most important Italian progressive weekly of the time, "Il Mondo" edited by Mario Pannunzio. He has managed as few have done, to document the rich artistic, folkloric and human heritage of Sicily.
THE ONLY POP WAY TO TRAFFIC
illustrated b/n and colour – photos by Melo Minnella
The three-wheeled Ape – or the Lapa, as it is commonly known in Sicily – is the ultimate democratic vehicle. It accommodates popular creativity, and the notion that objects can be put to use in all kinds of different ways. The Lapa is like a doll whose dresses can be changed at will. This is why it can be turned into an ice cream van, a cab; it can transport vegetables or take your cousins for a ride... From Italy to India, from Vietnam to China the Ape has been constantly reinterpreted and reinvented to match local transport traditions. It is the vehicle that allows people to inhabit the streets in all kinds of different ways, and thus blend into their specific culture. Just like in Sicily, it has become the updated version of the traditional carretto, in India, it has substituted the elephant, but it has also become the altar where the Bollywood versions of ancient sagas are depicted. No other vehicle best represents soft globalization, which does not ruin people's lives but makes it easier while respecting and adapting to the endless diversity of their customs. Indeed, Lape manage to blend into the most exotic contexts and to become integral part of the cityscape and rural environment of any country and does not have the stupid pretension of other cars to take precedence over the environment. The playful approach the text and the images adopt to narrate the Lapa prompts the reader to go beyond the surface of familiar things. With its anthropological approach to everyday life, the book also urges the readers to look at themselves as the primeval anthropological subjects, as "primitives" so to speak.
Franco La Cecla (Palermo 1950), anthropologist and urban theorist, has taught Cultural Anthropologist at Berkeley, Paris, Venice, Bologna and Milan.
Melo Minnella (Mussomeli, 1937) first published his photos in the 1950s in the most important Italian progressive weekly of the time, "Il Mondo" edited by Mario Pannunzio. He has managed as few have done, to document the rich artistic, folkloric and human heritage of Sicily.