Aldeno-Cei-Val di Gresta-Loppio + Annamaria & Nerino - Tue, 30.12.2014
For this third excursion we drove by car from Nomi to Loppio over Aldeno, the Cei Valley, Bordala, the Gresta Valley and Nomesino, where we visited Alessio Maggiani, who showed us around a bit.
Important thoughts
How to deal with the extreme dislocation of the different villages and centres? Where shall we start? Shall we think about the project's area of intervention as a'bio region' kind of extension, where certain cycles can be closed? On the other side of the spectrum, the project could be hyper-local and involve people only from the areas that are closest to Nomi.
Again we talked about where the project should stand in regards to the inhabitants of the valley. Should it be for them? A sort of service? Should it speak only to a specific section of the population(for example, only people who studied, who are'lefties')? Or should it be something we carry out on our own with a certain degree of openness and see who is joining?
How should the project, which may be dealing with education to an extent, relate to pre-existing educational models that are present in the area? For example, almost every comune offers a set of courses, from language classes to specialisations in different fields like cooking, playing a music instrument or different kinds of craft. In these cases, it is almost always the case that an expert shares her knowledge with amateurs or non-experts against payment. Could our initiative attach to these models and expand them / make them strange?
How can we formulate a common research track that is built on communally formulated problems and themes we would like to explore?
One option is that COMUNfARE tries to collect, connect and involve fore-mostly people like Alessio or like Christian, people who have a certain level of education, who have similar ideas and views of the world, who would like to do things but feel blocked and isolated, which prevents them to act. By involving these potentially interesting people, the project may grow organically involving others, but keeping a kind of hard core.
Meeting Alessio was very good-- it seems vital to be in contact with people who help you enter an unknown context, being at their house, chatting freely, spending time with them in the place gives important insights and makes interesting thoughts emerge
How do we want to relate through the project to these more distant places, like Ala, Brentonico etc.? They are still very distant(geographically, mentally) from our context. Villages on the hills seem different than those in the valley, the more so if it's small fractions, which are way more rare in the plain. But they potentially'offer' great people, like Alessio. Villages in the plain seem to be more similar one to the other than those in the mountains.
How do we want to deal with villages that are not part of the Comunità, but that are close to us in different ways, like Aldeno, or Folgaria?
It would be interesting to know how the transition from a non-organic kind of agriculture towards an almost entirely organic one happened in the Gresta valley-- what resistance was met, how farmers were convinced, etc.
Important observations
The apple cultivations seem to become more frequent between Nomi and Aldeno.
Aldeno's sprawling quite a bit.
From Cimone(the comune with many different small fractions above Aldeno) departs the Cei Valley, that reaches until the lakes. Close to the villages, the valley is dominated by plantations and other kinds of economy which mutates to a more touristy landscape with small holiday houses the more you approach the lake.
In Ronzo, at the bar people are lamenting the fact that the commune is possibly going to be abolished(maybe annexed to Mori, which is the closest bigger one)-- saying that this is a problem for comuni that are so distant to other centres and that people down in the valley who are also lamenting the possible abolishment of their comune are not facing the same problems they are, and that in that case it's only'campanilismo'.
The many terraces that are only reachable by foot are threatened to be completely absorbed by the woods. In some cases, people are reclaiming terraced fields and clearing them of trees, for example the person that put bee hives on one in Nomesino. In some cases the terraces are crumbling. Like the terraces and olive plantations in Palestine, this is also a case of'generational commons'. But in any case, all the pieces of land have specific owners.
This and others are small'interstice economies' that are being born and that probably will see an increase in the future as more young people will go back to cultivate the land.
From what Alessio says, only a handful of farmers in the valley manage to sustain themselves economically by working the land, and it's hard work. What he's looking for is a more'relaxed' way of making a living, that leaves space also for other activities.
More visual impressions
Bordala
Ronzo - next to the old part, as in most villages in the area, in the'60s-'70s many large alone-standing houses were built. Ronzo-Chienis seems to have all the services that are needed for keeping villagers in the area
Important thoughts
Important observations
More visual impressions