Giò Tavaglione
the designer who created the Mondo Beat Poster (Manifesto di Mondo Beat)
"Manifesto di Mondo Beat", by Giò Tavaglione.
It was published by Edizioni di Cultura Contemporanea in 2,000 copies in May 1967. Chronologically, it is the first manifesto of the Italian counterculture.
Mondo Beat N. 4 (Issue 6)
- May 31, 1967 - Edition: 12,000 copies.
Note. In this issue, which consisted of 12 pages, two pages together made one large one.
The sixth issue of Mondo Beat magazine appeared during the Barbonia City time, at the heights of Mondo Beat story, when the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley and the Provo Movement in Amsterdam were in decline and the youths of the Mondo Beat Movement opened up the scenarios of the Contestation in Milan.
Barbonia City lasted from May 1, 1967, i.e. the day when its campsite opened, to June 12, when it was destroyed by the military, but the long wave of sexual liberation it aroused reached all of Italy and the Italians, who had been sexually repressed, especially the women, from this wave would emerge among the most sexually liberated people in the world and such would have remained.
Comments on articles:
pages 1 and 12
This cover was prepared by Melchiorre Gerbino with slogans which had marked the path of the Mondo Beat Movement. Some of these slogans are puns and can be understood only by readers who are familiar with the Italian language, of the others, there is here the translation into English:
- "La scuola fucina di cervelli, preservativo di idee. Studenti, gridatelo dai banchi!" School is a forge of brains and a condom of ideas - Students, shout this from the school desks!
- "Pubblicazioni sequestrate - La Procura della Repubblica di Milano ha disposto il sequestro di «Mondo Beat» n. 1 dell’ 1.3.1967 giudicandolo di contenuto contrario al buon costume" Seized publications - The Milan Public Prosecutor ordered the seizure of «Mondo Beat» n. 1, dated March 1, 1967, having judged its content contrary to morality.
- "Spazio morale per una generazione d'emergenza!" Moral space for an emergency generation!
- "Al Vietnam in minicoscienza, alla Vettabbia in minigonna" In Vietnam with a mini conscience, at the Vettabbia with a miniskirt. ("Vettabbia" was the name of the stream which ran along the eastern side of Barbonia City camp.)
- "La bomba atomica per la fame nel mondo" The atomic bomb for world hunger.
- "Negli zaini dei beats non c'è posto per le cartucce" There is no room for cartridges in the backpacks of the Beats.
- "Dateci i sacchi a pelo e tenetevi le bandiere" Give us the sleeping bags and keep the flags.
- "Beats si vive, inseriti si muore" As a Beat you will live, trapped in the system you will die.
- "DIO.OOO.OOO esiste" GOD,000,000 exists.
And, of course, of all the slogans the most prominent was
The integrated one protests, the Beat contestates.
It was Mondo Beat's most qualifying and successful slogan.
pages 2 and 3
At the top left of this large page, signed OM, is a poem by Silla Ferradini on his wandering on the road.
Below, in the same column, there are 6 verses by Tella Ferrari.
In the central column there is an article by Anto (Antonio) Mariani, "The family, home of selfishness" (La famiglia focolare d'egoismo).
Antonio Mariani was from the Base of Mondo Beat and in the editorial staff of the magazine. In this article he described how a typical Italian family of the time, to conform to hypocritical moral precepts, prevented a young from participating in social life as he wished, even if there was nothing wrong with that.
In this photo,
the longhaired Antonio Mariani
is the second from left among those seated.
At the top right of the page, signed "Claudio Pitschen", there are verses by an external contributor to Mondo Beat magazine.
Below, in the same column, there is a poem with a futuristic title, "19664", by Renzo Freschi, which couldn't help but write, despite having nothing interesting to say.
To tell more about Renzo Freschi, after the Mondo Beat period he began a business as an oriental art dealer and openly expressed his rejection of the part he had had in Mondo Beat, having not made any economic profit from it. But, over the years, realizing that he would not be remembered for what he could have sold as a merchant, but perhaps for his participation in the history of Mondo Beat, he tried to mystify this history on Facebook and Wikipedia, with the aim to carve out a noble part for himself, that of one of the founders of Mondo Beat. Melchiorre Gerbino could not help but intervene to make it clear that Renzo Freschi was an impostor, and Renzo Freschi, once again, would not have made any profit from Mondo Beat, indeed he would have lost some credibility as an oriental art dealer.
pages 4 and 5
Half of this double page is covered by an "Open letter to Mondo Beat" (LETTERA APERTA A MONDO BEAT) by Michele Rallo, a young fascist who understood nothing of the anarchist nature of the Mondo Beat Movement, but believed it was influenced by the Communists. Michele Rallo thus underlined that Jack Kerouac and other characters of the Beat Generation were not communists.
But stupider than this open letter was the reply, written by Gianni De Martino, a newcomer to the editorial staff of Mondo Beat magazine.
This newcomer had introduced himself as a homosexual Catholic and had asked to be part of the magazine's editorial team. He was accepted because it was understood that he would address the issue of the civil rights of homosexuals. But he would not write about it, instead, replying to the fascist Michele Rallo, Gianni De Martino would have attacked Jack Kerouac because he drank instead of thinking about Jesus.
He wrote: "No one has ever recognized Jack Kerouac as a master" - and then directly rebuked Jack Kerouac- "Good old Kerouac, do you remember Jesus? When you're not drunk, do you think about his words? They have written a lot about him, you know, Kerouac? They called him a socialist, liberal, fascist, violent, pacifist, narcissist, megalomaniac, artist, god. "
Gianni De Martino, a self-declared homosexual Catholic, scolding Jack Kerouac from the pages of Mondo Beat.
This writing by Gianni De Martino is undoubtedly the stupidest among the many that have unfortunately been published in Mondo Beat magazine.
At the bottom of this central column is the article "Without motivations, without soul." (Senza motivi. Senza anima). Signed OM (Silla Ferradini) it is a writing of revolt against the consumer society.
In the last column on the right, signed "Paola", there is a writing by an external contributor to Mondo Beat magazine
pages 6 and 7 (1)
Upper half of the "Manifesto di Mondo Beat", by Giò Tavaglione, reproduced in 6,000 copies of the 12,000 of this issue.
Monique Charvet Monik.
In this photo, taken in the Cave at the time of Mondo Beat's hunger strike, the first on the left is Monique Charvet Monik, a French girl. Next to her are Ringo and Jenny, Romans.
Monique Charvet took part in the Demonstration of Flowers and in the Demonstration to Contestate the Establishment. She was caught by the police in both demonstrations and deported twice to France from where she returned to Milan. At the Police Headquarters they were kind to her and never put her in prison. Giò Tavaglione was inspired by her. In the upper left corner of the "Manifesto di Mondo Beat" there is written "Siamo tutti a viso aperto" (We are all open-faced) "ma Monik di più" (but Monik more). And there are also signature and date (Giò 67).
pages 6 and 7 (2)
Lower half of the "Manifesto di Mondo Beat" by Giò Tavaglione, reproduced in 6,000 copies of the 12,000 of this issue.
As for Giò Tavaglione, he died a few years after Mondo Beat time. He slipped into the hotel room where he lived and banged his head against the edge of a piece of furniture. He never drank alcohol or took drugs, it was a terrible accident.
pages 8 and 9
The girl says: "Bring us 50 kg of spaghetti every day to Mondo Beat campsite, Via Ripamonti. Help us to contestate you!"
.In the upper part of this page, there is an article, "Dalla foglia di fico alla vernice" (From fig leaf to patent leather)by that external contributor whose mother killed the wolfdog.
At the bottom left of this page, there is an article by Claudio Alemagna, "EDUCAZIONE SESSUALE ALL'ITALIANA" (Sex education in the Italian way) which is worth to be translated:
«
The press is announcing that the government is preparing some texts for sex education in schools, as it is "a necessity which cannot be postponed".
The news fills us with dismay, because we imagine what can be sex education in a country ruled by Vatican proconsuls. So far, the bigots who govern us have adopted the strategy of ignoring the issue of sex education, by strictly forbidding any discussion on the topic. But now that young people are getting rid of many taboos, those bigots are abandoning their silence and are preparing an attack.
To predict what will be sex education in our schools, just look at some of the many small volumes that various Catholic organizations have recently published.
These publications usually begin with a very detailed exposure on reproduction, that is, with photos of sperm and ovules, discourses on chromosomes and on many other details of little interest to the nonspecialist. Such scientific explanations are intended to intimidate the reader, to make understand how great is his ignorance on the topic, in order to prevent the reader from criticizing the bullshit which will be said later.
On the other hand, when it comes to contraception, the discourse becomes very fast and highlights the insecurity of all means of birth control and the "immoral, unnatural" characteristics of these means. Therefore, it is claimed that the safest method of contraception is abstinence.
Information returns plentiful when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases: infertility, paralysis, blindness, madness, abnormal children, are spectra dramatically agitated before the eyes of the reader.
When the effect of terror has been achieved, they inform, with only two lines, that venereal diseases can be treated and cured.
Finally comes the statement that abstinence has never hurt anyone and can easily be achieved by any normal young person.
Thus, to defend what has been achieved so far in the field of sexual freedom, we can only hope in the current attitude of rejection of our young people towards school and teachers.»
In the central part at the bottom of this page, Melchiorre Gerbino published a photo which he had collected from those already published by the newspaper L'Unità, that of a girl who looked like those girls who attended Barbonia City, and he added the caption "Bring us 50 kg of spaghetti every day to Mondo Beat campsite, Via Ripamonti. Help us to contestate you!". As has already been mentioned, the newspaper Il Giorno was receptive and kindly sent 50 kg of spaghetti to Barbonia City every day.
In the lower right part of this page, signed "A. OM", there is an article by Silla Ferradini against compulsory military service: "Dateci i sacchi a pelo e tenetevi le bandiere" (Give us the sleeping bags and keep the flags.).
pages 10 and 11
- - On this double page, the first two columns are covered by writings of three external contributors.
In the last column there are two articles, the first, "Il campione" ; (The champion), by Gianluigi Castelli, who expressed his approval for Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) refusal to participate in the Vietnam War.
Below, there is the article "e il morto" (and the dead man), by Renato (Renè Vento), who complained that in Monte Carlo, where a Formula 1 driver had died in an accident, there were people in the Casino who weren't in pain but were still playing roulette. With this article Renè Vento believed he was contestating the System, when in reality this is one of the stupidest articles published in the magazine Mondo Beat (the second stupidest, after that of Gianni De Martino, the Catholic homosexual who scolded Jack Kerouac).
In conclusion.
This last issue, although original as layout, had few interesting articles to read, as too many were those written by people unrelated to the Contestation, who wrote nonsense because they did not understand what was going on. Evidently, Melchiorre Gerbino was in a critical situation with the magazine Mondo Beat and he was aware of it. He had therefore decided that after this last issue the magazine's publications would be suspended for a while, as he wanted to change the nature of the magazine, publishing only cartoons, images with lapidary captions and photomontages. Surely then a selection of original contributors would have been made, while the external contributors would have been automatically eliminated. Melchiorre Gerbino had asked for the collaboration of Giò Tavaglione to carry out this project. They had calculated that it would take until the beginning of October before they could publish a first issue conceived in this new way. After that they could have published another 3 or 4 issues before the end of the year, when the magazine would have definitively ceased publication and the Mondo Beat Movement would have been dissolved.
Why put an end to the publication of the magazine at the end of 1967 and dissolve the Mondo Beat Movement?
Because the Mondo Beat Movement, which would have had its maximum strength in October, November, December of that year 1967, when it would have committed itself to unleashing mass contestation, would have inevitably decayed from then on, so the best thing would have been to dissolve it at the end of that year, to end in style.
Indeed, the Base of Mondo Beat could no longer have been renewed by that kind of heroic young people who were forming it. The fact that young people no longer had to face the Milan Police Headquarters made it impossible to understand who was who among the new arrivals. Now, among the new arrivals, there were characters posing as Beats who came from towns here and there, when in reality they were secret service agents arriving from carabinieri caserns.
So, if at the end of 1967 Mondo Beat had not been able to trigger the mass contestation, it wouldn't have been able subsequently, therefore, its dissolution at the end of 1967 would have been appropriate, especially if the Movement had missed the objective of mass contestation, because it would have already been half success to have thousands of young people who would spontaneously stage contestations throughout Italy, rather than having them in a movement which the System could easily have managed as a fashionable one.
Returning now to the topic of the renewal of Mondo Beat magazine, since we had calculated 4 months time before being ready to come out with a first issue with the new features, we had ordered 12,000 copies of the current issue, to sell them meantime. Thus, when Tecnografica Milanese delivered the copies of this issue, half were stored in the Cave and half were put into circulation. As it was almost summer and people were already going on vacation, we estimated that the 6,000 copies we put into circulation would have been sold in the arch of one or two months. Instead, they were sold in 3 days. So, we had to stop selling on the street, for not having all the 12,000 copies sold out in a few days. Incredible paradox, the magazine was most successful when it was at its worst with the quality of the articles. Evidently, this success was due to the sexual revolution taking place in Barbonia City, of which Corriere della Sera, Corriere d'informazione and La Notte informed hundreds of thousands of people every day with furious articles.
