Keywords

1 Introduction

Alessandro Guida and Viviana Rubbo graduated at the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, and, from there, their paths have been very different for quite a long time. Alessandro worked as an architect, 3D visual designer and photographer. Viviana worked for several years in social planning and community-based development projects until when she found herself dealing with urban and territorial dynamics in Europe and around the world. Those two paths began to intertwine along the years because of a common interest in the observation of the territorial shifting and its spatial and societal implications. In 2016 they embarked on a new common adventure with the creation, together with other photographers, of the collective Urban Reports which has led –few years later– to the duo format of Paesaggisensibili. This practice was born to develop new forms of territorial narrative through the use of different languages (mainly photography, video and texts) as a method of engagement of a large spectrum of disciplines and knowledge sectors aimed at the involvement of a wider public in the discussion around landscape’s transformations.

2 Photography as a Cultural Tool to Delve into the Landscapes (the Act of Looking as an Instrument for a Critical Observation of Our Society)

In a moment when we are confronted with an unprecedented complexity of territorial systems, an increasing acceleration of the processes of transformation and global phenomena (climate crisis, massive migration flows and pandemic events to name a few), the landscapes, and our perception of them, are subject to change, questioning the systems of values that, as individuals and as a society, we assign to them. These changes are happening faster than before and society doesn’t have the time to assimilate them.

Already thirty years ago geographer Eugenio Turri proposed the metaphor of ‘the landscape as a theatre’ to express the urge to reflect on the way we transform our spaces of life; “man’s relationship with the territory does not only concern his accomplishment as a doer, who operates and transforms nature, but also, if not above all, his being an observer […] who understands the measure of his footprint: that is, the reflection on himself, the awareness of his own action” [1]. In this sense, landscapes are not just a mere spatial concept, but a cultural construction, made up of images that we inherit from the past, and which is enriched, day by day, by observing them.

Landscapes are like a text made of stories, memories and signs and, as such, they must be deciphered, read and interpreted.

Photography is a medium that can well respond to this challenge. In fact, it expands the possibilities of critical analysis of the space because it requires the immersion in the territory, the physical and mental experience of the places, introducing the subjective dimension in the interpretation of the landscape. At the same time it is also a powerful means of communication, because of its empathy and subjectivity, capable of dealing with the existing imagination, updating or replacing it, and thus giving life to territorial narratives capable of reaching out a large variety of actors, such as technicians, specialists and policy-makers, but also the general public with the aim to encourage more inclusive decision-making processes. This is why the privileged target of Pesaggisensibili are landscapes in transition, places in abeyance or going through a process of change. The goal is to draw attention to hurdles and issues, as well as hidden potentials and values to be rediscovered, and meanings to be reassigned. The sense of a place shouldn’t be lost as Juan Noguè, the Catalan geographer recalls, “when the landscape loses its imagination and one is unable to replace it, in that very moment, the landscape dies” [2].

For this paper, three projects were selected to display a number of possibilities offered by this tool.

In the first one, the perceptive dimension of the space was introduced to nourish a research-led design process. The occasion was the project called Arcipelago, proposed by Mario Cucinella, the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the XVI International Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2018. The goal was to experiment new paradigms based on interdisciplinary and multi-actor working methods stimulating the role of architecture as change-maker in the reactivation of the inland areas of the country.

In this context photography:

  1. 1.

    Proved to be a concrete knowledge tool supporting the design process, providing a new layer of understanding of the areas of interest (the photographic research was not limited to the single intervention site but had explored a wider region);

  2. 2.

    Offered insights and unexpected connections between the sites when seen all together (territorial analysis and observation). Seeking to provide a larger vision of the sites, each photographer has adopted his/her own point of view, capturing the diversity and the richness of each area;

  3. 3.

    Gave an organic vision, a new representation of these areas (from recomposing the photographers’ individual investigation into a collective narrative), showing the photographers’ view on the reality explored.

The photographic campaign saw the photographers travel along the Apennine ridge and develop a vision of the places that was intended to encourage the dialogue with the architects, being able to broaden their cognitive horizons, “an interpretative space that (has been) a resource and inspiration, to grasp the invisible reality, the silent words of the landscape” [3]. The areas of investigation chosen by the curator were: the Casentinesi Forests in the Emilia-Romagna region, the town of Camerino in the Marche region, the Basento Valley in Basilicata, Gibellina in Sicily and Ottana in the heart of Barbagia, in Sardinia. This work has produced a new level of interpretation for each area and therefore, as a whole, a visual synthesis of the identity of these territories.

The second project shows the use of the photographic narrative as a research instrument for territorial analysis and a method for communities engagement to raise awareness around the topic of the Ecosystem Services (ESs).

L.U.I.G.I stands for Linking Urban and Inner Alpine Green Infrastructures and was the title of a European project funded by the Alpine Space Program aimed at recognize, analyze, map and enhance ESs. The Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC) was adopted in 1992. It requires all EU Member States to establish a strict protection regime for species endangered with the aim of halting and reversing the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The study case chosen by the Turin Metropolitan City was the five lakes area of Ivrea, characterized by the presence of a majestic geological structure of glacial origins: the Morainic Amphitheater of Ivrea (AMI). The area is today a site of community importance and a Special Conservation Zone under the European Union Habitat Directive embracing six municipalities. Through a series of individual interviews, small group meetings (with the representatives of the productive and economic sectors, and with the administrators) and public gatherings, the process of listening has made possible to renew, and in some cases, to establish new connections between the territory and the representatives of the Metropolitan City and, at the inter-municipal level, between the public administrations, the associative world and the productive sectors which operate locally. The outcomes included a visual representation of this particular milieu which was brought at the citizens’ attention during a series of exhibitions in the public realm. In addition, an open-call was organized inviting the population to bring their own point of view with respect to the elements of the landscape that today require more care and attention.

Photography was therefore used, on the one hand, as a ‘cultural tool’ for the technical and sector-specific discussion between the Metropolitan City, the local administrators and the experts responsible for the identification and mapping of the ESs; on the other hand, as a ‘narrative language’ to address the theme of the ESs in dialogue with the territory with the aim to start a process of recognition of the naturalistic and environmental values of the site.

Finally, a project where photography has become the means for a group of inhabitants to explore and rediscover their own territory, assigning new, unexpected and, perhaps, forgotten meanings.

Découvrir pour promouvoir Saint-Vincent was a pilot project developed by the Associazione Poetica del Territorio together with Paesaggisensibili in collaboration with the Municipality of Saint-Vincent in the Italian Alps. The programme was funded by the European Union Interreg Alcotra Program. The Alpine town has been for more than two-thousand years at a crossroad of international influences, playing a strategic role in the socio-economic, cultural and urban development of the region.

Today the town is represented by a binary narrative: its casino and the thermal baths. The goal of the two year plan of activities was to steer a process of engagement of the local community in the recognition and re-appropriation of the cultural heritage and values of the municipal territory. A first step included the identification of a wide spectrum of disciplines to develop the contents necessary to deepen the knowledge of the site from a geological, archeological, artistic, historical and anthropological perspective. The outcomes were presented to the community during two public events. A second step centered on a workshop activity where participants were asked to elaborate their own vision of the local material and immaterial values supported by site visits and based on the awareness given by the direct experience of the place. The individual works were discussed collectively leading to a new multi-voice representation which seemed much more realistic and close to the complexity of the present reality. The results became a public show where an actress in duet with a musician interpreted and gave voice and atmosphere to the visual narrative with the aim to share the emerged vision with the larger community.

We are facing times which require to address an extraordinary number of territorial challenges starting from retrieving our ability to observe and interpret the space that surrounds us, what French geographer Jean-Marc Besse defines ‘la nécessité du paysage’ [4], possibly allowing different forms of representations to express such dense territorial conditions.