of Valeria Pica
I witness the sunrise over the mountain ridge every morning when I wake up in my bed in Fontecchio. I see the shapes of clouds in the indigo sky, the sparkle of the stars, and I feel the river, whether turbulent or serene, unwaveringly following its course. I live and breathe an air of change. I see, feel, and experience in ways that few other places have afforded me.
All this alone would suffice to justify a life and career choice revolving significantly around Fontecchio for the past 6 years because it's here that I feel at home; and this fact is not insignificant. The sense of belonging is crucial in making choices that still seem foolish and thoughtless to urban minds. But the magnetism that permeates every stone of the town has no equal in cities that, at times, are sleepy, self-referential, and overloaded with everything.
My journey here has intertwined with some people and projects to which I am deeply attached. These are projects in which since 2017, I believe and to which I dedicate much of my energy. It warms the heart to see how a small gesture, a song, a word can bring back smiles and open drawers of memories in people who consider places like Fontecchio a realm of suspension from time and space.
The common narrative often imagines villages perched on hills or mountains as small worlds closed off from development, crystallized in a bucolic, romantic dimension of the past. For those who see, feel, and breathe these stones, it's evident that it's not the case.
By dismantling the paradigm of the village as an escape from cities, when one arrives and stays, they understand that the rhythm is different, the balances are different, as are the opportunities, but that doesn't mean they are any less. They are different. Starting again from education about diversity, complexity, and from understanding and attention to vocations, one can better engage in the process of change that Fontecchio is undergoing today, a change that originates from afar, very far away. Because development processes can take hold and trigger where there's a substrate ready to support and welcome them, otherwise, they risk representing infatuations, deeply ingrained in the memory of internal areas, leading to much distrust and indolence in response to new projects.
Processes, by their nature, are slow; they are built in a mode of mutual trust and collaboration so fragile that they require a lot of concentration, attention, and presence. However, what does all this serve? What is the sense of dedicating oneself with such persistence, contrary to common narratives that portray culture as elitist and distant from everyday choices? What added value does it give to our being, staying, and remaining in these territories? To answer these questions, it's essential to envision, and then implement, a paradigm shift where culture is not merely a happy consequence, sporadic acts of patronage that absorb economic capacities without ever repaying the cost of the activities undertaken. Culture is no longer primarily an economic sector linked to entertainment as the development of creative and cultural industries.
Culture 3.0 overturns this paradigm and places active cultural participation at the center of reflection through community engagement in creating economic and social value, allowing for increased visibility, reputation, and attractiveness of the place, both as a tourist destination and a professional platform. At the local and national levels, "the phenomenon of participatory cultural practices, particularly participatory public art projects, is becoming an issue of great relevance in urban regeneration processes; [...] allowing for a radical redefinition of the sense of belonging and identity of a neighborhood as well as the entire city, with an immediate impact in terms of citizens' sense of responsibility and pro-social behaviors, redefining the social and symbolic foundations of the place" (Sacco, Teti, 2017).
The process initiated in Fontecchio aligns with this direction, starting with the establishment of the first artist residences in 2018. Community participation, the search for genius loci, understanding of the places to co-create a new narrative, redefining the balances between humans and nature, and awareness of the fragility of the cultural ecosystem of the territory have become focal points of the choices and activities experimented within the subsequent years. All this requires time and reasoned, shared interventions to become effective and produce positive and pervasive effects.
So, if paradise is not a place but a time(1), this is the time of change that as a community of practices, each and everyone can make real in a process of transformation and innovation. Thanks to their own vocations, capacities, imagination, and energy, they can overturn the common belief in the transience and superfluity of culture. If Fontecchio continues in the revolution of Culture 3.0, then it could truly become a point of reference. Because to make a revolution, a great feeling of love(2) is required. Culture is not the end; culture is the engine of change."
Quote from the movie "Anime borboniche" by Paolo Consorti and Guido Morra (2021)
Quote from Ernesto Che Guevara P.L. Sacco, E. Teti, Culture 3.0. A new
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