PAESAGGI IN MOVIMENTO
PAESAGGI IN MOVIMENTO
2012 – 2019, Dorsale ferroviaria da Potenza a Bari.
The project has a territorial dimension and originates from aesthetic and landscape observations regarding the areas crossed by the railway, which has remained substantially faithful to its early 20th-century construction.
The project involved professionals, experts, artists, scholars, and the local population. The project was conceived by Marcella Tisi and Andrea Rolando (professor at the Politecnico di Milano); experts and professionals involved include Claudio Cerritelli (art critic and former professor at the Brera Academy, Milan), Eng. Francesco Onorato (professional and member of Pro Loco Irsina), Alessandro Scandiffio (professor at the Politecnico di Torino), Guido Morandini (RAI photographer), and Valoris Marcon (sculptor).
Paesaggi in movimento was established in 2012 and included in a program to promote the territory and the railways that cross it, in collaboration with the Municipality of Irsina, the Politecnico di Milano, the Municipality of Gravina, FAL, and Matera 2019. It was part of the collateral events of Materadio in 2013, 2014, and 2018 and was featured within the Expo 2015, held in Milan in May 2015. The project was shortlisted as a finalist in the Land Art category in the 2015 edition of the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice. In 2016, it was selected as a significant landscape design experience for the 53rd World Congress of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).
Moreover, especially in Basilicata, where towns are situated in the hilly parts of the territory, the railway stations and stops had to be positioned in the valleys, at some distance from the towns themselves. Consequently, they have always been considered a limitation of the transport system in the area, seen as lacking development and without a future. However, what has been a limitation until now holds great potential: the harmony between this land and its inhabitants, its towns, the discreet and occasional architectural landmarks, and the connections—whether railways, roads, or trails—is a heritage worth preserving. This fusion of memories and gradual transformations of the landscape makes it nearly unique from an aesthetic experience standpoint.
This heritage, so tangible yet at the same time intangible because not immediately perceptible, must be protected from two opposite risks: slow abandonment and oblivion, or, conversely, its destruction through invasive interventions. From these considerations, the artistic project Paesaggi in Movimento was born. This project views experiences in the territory as a work of art, shaped by a collective action that, beginning with the landscape, urban planning, and territorial studies, engages various artistic languages: land art and environmental art, civic theater, music, photography, and direction.
The artistic component is the core of Paesaggi in Movimento, as the project’s central theme is the landscape—or more precisely, the territory understood as a landscape that, as such, is itself a work of art. According to the vision of the creators and the artistic curator, and in harmony with the project’s spirit, the artistic interventions to be included belong to Land Art, or more broadly to Environmental Art, where the main theme is the place considered both a priori and a posteriori. These interventions generate works, sensibilities, and attitudes that inevitably engage with the territory, blending harmoniously with it and all its elements. This project specifically aims to identify a series of artistic interventions that can grow over time, with the goal of providing landscape education, helping people understand the territory in terms of its many values.
The works that accompanied the events of 2013, 2014, and 2018, created by Marcella Tisi, represent her approach to art in these places: Passaggi Blu, Passaggi Blu. Alberi, Dalla terra e dall’acqua (not realized), and Scegli il tuo paesaggio! These works are not intended as solutions to the territory’s challenges but as attempts, through the language of art and visual representation, to highlight the landscape’s value, create subtle discontinuities, and gently shift the everyday perspective, awakening awareness.
THE EVENTS
The events organized so far have included a day of exploration through the Lucanian countryside, by train and on foot, focused on the landscape theme presented by Marcella Tisi’s land art works. These events aimed to raise awareness and engage the local population through artistic, theatrical, and musical interventions.
Paesaggi in movimento. Intervista
Campagna materana 2014
The artist provides a summary of the main contents regarding this territorial-scale project.
