New Neapolis

In a world where cities are becoming more important than countries, Rotterdam, Liverpool, Marseilles and Naples could form a 'cities gang'. All four are working class, multicultural and internationally oriented, and have been influenced significantly by urban planning and nineteenth-century and modernist urges to demolish. They share a clichéd sense of inferiority and often top 'the wrong charts'. They are currently undergoing an international re-evaluation, including ongoing processes of gentrification. Their shared characteristics could form the basis for a gang of cities capable of taking on the world. Or even showing the world how it could be done.

Following his futuristic Rotterdam 2040, in New Neapolis Gyz La Rivière presents his home city and its counterparts as the vanguard of a new, sexy Europe. His cinematic manifesto, built up of rhythmically edited archive footage, delves into the present and past of the four cities, exposing countless cross-connections. His aim is to create a positive impression – an antidote to hollow populism – with a focus on the individual residents who make these cities what they are.

Part of RTM, the Rotterdam selection.