At first glance, the two harbour cities Naples and Rotterdam look totally different. But after much wandering in Naples I saw many similarities. These resemblances I captured in the Similarities Machine. The mould of the Similarities Machine is somewhat inspired by the Memory board game and by the work of Rotterdam based artist-colleagues like the Pictobook by 75B and the Match of the Day project by Geert Mul.
The comic Iron Lion Neapolis is an ironic tribute to Naples and Rotterdam. Also Marseille and Liverpool briefly share the story shortly. These four harbour cities can learn a lot from each other. What really concerns me is that they are going to be each other’s brother city. In other words, the masculine version of the sister city. Sister cities mainly find each other in prosperity, or mostly in blind economic gain, usually with good intentions. Brother cities evolve out of the opposite: they find each other in what is not going well in the city. It is a much more humane beginning of friendship. The comic Iron Lion Neapolis is the impetus for the future fraternization of these four harbour cities. These are villain cities, you just want to belong…
The essay No Structure says much about the history of Naples and Rotterdam. What do they have in common and what do they not share? When did I hear the word Naples or Napoli for the first time? I think it must have been during the summer of 1986. During that summer I was with my family in the little village of L’Estartit on the Costa Brava in Spain. The World Cup took place in Mexico at the same time as our holiday fun, where Argentina played legendary football. [...] Maradona was the best and he played for Napoli at that time, the football club from the city of Naples. Through Diego Armando Maradona, I learned about the existence of the city of Naples and I became a fan of soccer club Napoli, besides Feyenoord off course.