I was part of the interdisciplinary team coordinated by Mario Cucinella, curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, involved in the creation of the project “Arcipelago Italia. Projects for the future of the country’s internal territories”. A collective gathering architects, urban planners, historians, experts in participatory planning and different other disciplines, who have worked together on 6 experimental projects in 5 strategic areas conceived as potential opportunities for growth and development for the territories of the internal areas of Italy. The strategic areas were: Appennino Tosco Emiliano and the Casentinesi Forests, Gibellina and the Belice Valley, Camerino and the crater of the 2016 earthquake, Ottana and Barbagia, Matera and the Basento Valley.

A six-month journey which has enabled us to go back to the territories several times, “metabolize” the landscape and turn it into something which has become part of us (as Gabriele Basilico used to say).  It has been a true experience of various places, made of words, readings, walks and particularly positive encounters with the architects, the consultants, the experts and the local populations. All these experiences have revealed stories and gazes, guiding us to the discovery of territories still unknown.

Alessandro Guida, 2018