When the inflorescence is ripe, the rush can be collected. The tallest rushes, destined to turn into Fishing traps or fruit baskets, are subjected to the process twistthe splitting of the fibers, making them longer flexible. they are coming cookedto become even more malleable. Then The sun dries the slats, which are finally selected, trimmed and scraped. And hung “in rooms where The air is filled with sulfur that evaporates from the pans.” Ready for someone else to weave them in again a thin and light structure. A sturdy frame, a large basket for olives. Or a fan. “In the land called Finibus Terrae, where the earth ends and the Mediterranean begins,” in the south of Puglia, there is still Who guards this rite?a designer named Anna Siciliano who managed to reinvent and renew it “for all the artists of my country, without knowing it”. His story is one of those told in the biohumanism of Puglia. Stories of the country and its people, the photo book published by the journalist Melania Petriello and the photographer Chiara Pasqualiniwith texts written together Stefano Martella, on the initiative of the State Councilor for the Environment Anna Grazia Maraschio.
“This project came about a hidden need that I've had inside me for a long time: bring that out hidden worlds this region, the minimal stories in which the power of universal themes lies,” he says in the afterword Anna Grazia Maraschio. The volume, just like Anna with the rush, weaves different weft and warp threads, but united through them a single voltage: that of man towards nature and that of nature towards man. A “Biohumanism of Puglia”, a term coined by Maraschio for this project, “where Nature and humans enter into a symbiosis of love, driving and not stagnating, brotherly, united in the same fate.”
From that Martha's storythe 92-year-old “in the belly of the places, the Bay still wild between Pascia and Otranto”, offers travelers food and refreshments Story of paradisethe district of Brindisi, which was a symbol of the 1990s “Marlboro City” and today at the center of an urban renewal project, a common thread unites the volume's protagonists: “They are all people who They know the area inside and out and for this reason they keep it, they know about it Fragilities and potentials of appreciation,” writes Maraschio again. “But it’s an improvement quiet and hardworking, tenderin respect for the very fragile balance that humans have with nature and the ecosystems in which they live.”
A few meters away Serpe Towerone of several Watchtowers which are located on the Salento coast, in an area where only the “old stone buildings” are mentioned Mother casedda “(Mother’s house) reminds us of the presence of people,” creates “la Marta”. his farm, the first in this impenetrable and windy area. A purely female projectShe runs a kitchen with her two daughters – in which she still cooks Work the dough by hand – which only I can enter Products from his garden, following the cycle of the seasons. “I just wanted to feed those who came to these places,” he explains. But reading her story in “Biohumanism,” it’s clear she did more than that: “Marta is in every way a parking attendantShe is silent and hard-working, but her message makes more noise than any slogan.”
For several years a ToastsForm accepted the “Pasta” project.Acronym for Paradiso Street Art, conceived and implemented by Arca Nord Salento as part of the Building renovation and energy efficiency, financed by the Puglia Region with the Department of Housing Policy. The goal is to create a series of Work on the facades the ERP building in the neighborhood, Community involvement through interventions, meetings and artistic workshops curated by the social enterprise Imagineable, in synergy with Teatro Pubblico Pugliese, Bjcem and the Municipality of Brindisi. Like an Apulian New York a Harlem of Brindisia neighborhood once known as a “smugglers’ stronghold” becomes one Street art city park thanks to the decoration of the forty side facades of twenty public housing buildings. In fact, from August 20, 2020, Italian and international writers began to create their own works that give the neighborhood a new light without betraying its identity. In fact, each mural was made by a different artist and each of them created a work linked to the history of the districtalso thanks to the contribution of citizens.
They are stories that are not based on that nostalgia a time that is now lost, but continues Violence of those who have created starting from traditions and their own roots Future and growth prospects for their country. The book is therefore configured as a alternative map of Puglia, a map of its present created by the people who inhabit and keep these lands alive. “Ours was one Field report, a real meeting experience, with the long lead times that stories of this type require,” Melania Petriello tells Ifattoquotidiano.it. “AND a tribute to love to this country and these people,” a report that began with Marta’s story and ended with a hug: “The most beautiful moment was the meeting between Helen Mirren, Oscar winner and honorary citizen of Tiggiano, and Marta. We were at the book presentation that took place with Helen in the city of Salento. When Marta arrived, they immediately recognized each other and hugged. A unique moment, the perfect ending to what we started with. A hug that seals this journey.
