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Walking La Pineta, the Pine Hill, that was planted 74 years ago by Filignano's primary school children

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Working across site-specific, participatory, socially engaged and digital art and performance practices the WILD WAYS 2022 Group Residency took place in Collemacchia, in Italy’s Molise region where inhabitants are attempting to reinvigorate their community in the face of significant environmental and cultural change.

The facilitators and residents, from diverse cultures and creative disciplines, worked together and on individual practices through collaborative place-based making processes to generate and present global and local knowledge and strategies for imagining the futures of fragile cultural and environmental ecologies.

WILD WAYS provided opportunities for creative practitioners to share and establish a bank of knowledge and creative strategies, both globally interconnected and hyper local, digital and place-based.

The partially-structured and hands-on programme of site-based ways of working were activated by residents and shared to enable the development of skills and understanding of how to investigate site as part of a creative practice.

The supportive residency experience was designed to stimulate experimentation through collective and individual production, research, and co-learning. Participants investigated, shared and connected their experiences of and ways of working in their own place in the world with those of others through facilitated co-creating and co-presenting modes.

Guided by the facilitating artists and using a combination of platforms for transmitting and presenting audio/visual/textual and located media, residents shared guided walks and readings in lost, renewed or fragile places in the residency’s environment. Members of the local community who hold precious knowledge of walking routes, architectural and local history past and present, and collecting, archiving and presenting, contributed to bespoke sessions. The residency programme included time for residents to work individually, developing work in progress.

The WILD WAYS project establishes global perspectives, understandings, protocols and digital methods for remote and intercultural collaboration and enabled residency participants to approach Collemacchia’s community and environment informed and with foresight and care.

Both The Museum of Loss and Renewal and The Walking Library have well established methods of performance that takes audiences on guided walks with shared readings from a collection of books curated for the specific context of the walk.

The Museum of Loss and Renewal is an art project that offers space and contexts for making and sharing, nurtured by artist and curator Tracy Mackenna. Rather than being a museum in the traditional sense that accumulates ‘stuff’, its partners, residents and publics are stimulated to take time in which to generate thoughts, feelings and ideas. Its growing collection of experiences are regularly shared through its activities that include publishing and the (co)creation, sharing and presentation of books and printed matter; material that activates the 'guided walks' during its Residency Programmes.

The Walking Library is an ongoing creative research project created by Misha Myers and Dee Heddon, that seeks to bring together walking and books – walking, reading, reflecting, writing. Each Walking Library edition responds to – is specific to – the context of its walking. Each walk changes the shape – the content and the actions – of the library. Its TWL performance methods include the participatory curation of collections of books meant to be taken on walks in specific contexts with shared readings.

Video recording by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

Walking La Pineta; Natalie Doonan, Rachel Henson, Annabel Howland, Ainslie Murray, Laura Nanni, Emily Orley, Ivan Pope, Jo Wheeler, Tracy Mackenna and Misha Myers

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The Museum of Loss and Renewal and Filignano inhabitants discussing the recent clearing of dry-stone terraces on Colle Romano

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This is a celebration of individual practice, research, new collaborations and enduring friendships.

It has been curated and compiled by Tracy Mackenna, Curator of The Museum of Loss and Renewal with material contributions from the WILD WAYS residents and partners Misha Myers and Dee Heddon of The Walking Library.

Work that was generated during the PLACE, PEOPLE and TIME: WILD WAYS Group Residency that took place in Collemacchia, Molise, Italy in 2022 is brought together with a 2023 update of residents' practices and research.

WILD WAYS is an international residency project curated and facilitated through a new partnership between The Museum of Loss and Renewal and The Walking Library (Misha Myers, Melbourne/London and Dee Heddon, Glasgow) and is part of The Museum of Loss and Renewal’s ongoing Place, People and Time Group Residency series. This new partnership brings together two long-standing artist duos and projects who share site-specific, participatory and socially engaged art practices in common, yet hold diverse skills and expertise between them.

PLACE, PEOPLE and TIME: WILD WAYS was offered for practitioners and researchers working in all creative disciplines and for those who have a strong interest in the investigation of site and place. Applications were welcomed from fields where relationship to and investigation of place and site are of central focus and are used to develop, conserve, document, explore, explain, interrogate, plan and propose such as performance, art, design, architecture, archaeology, engineering, geography, geology, geotechnology, history, landscape design and writing.

The 2021 component of the WILD WAYS project that took place during the Covid pandemic was an online Group Residency with residents whose remarkable range of practices spanned art, walking, (cultural) geography, performing arts, urban theory, (landscape) architecture, theatre, dance, anthropology, publishing.

In Jan 2022 a co-authored public sharing of material generated during the WILD WAYS online residency, 2021 was launched in a bespoke public Online Event that included presentations by residents of their developing practices and research.

The Curator of The Museum of Loss and Renewal believes in the power of bringing people together, and that the remarkable things that happen during a Group Residency in Collemacchia contribute to this place, and to the wider world that it inhabits.

Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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PLACE, PEOPLE and TIME
WILD WAYS
2022

Wild Ways is an international residency project curated and facilitated through a new partnership between The Museum of Loss and Renewal (Tracy Mackenna & Edwin Janssen) and The Walking Library (Misha Myers and Dee Heddon) and is part of The Museum of Loss and Renewal's ongoing Place, People and Time group residency series. This new partnership brought together two long-standing artist duos and projects who share site-specific, participatory and socially engaged art practices in common, yet hold diverse skills and expertise between them.

Wild Ways was offered for practitioners and researchers working in all creative disciplines and for those who have a strong interest in the investigation of site and place. Applications from fields where relationship to and investigation of place and site are of central focus and are used to develop, conserve, document, explore, explain, interrogate, plan and propose such as performance, art, design, architecture, archaeology, engineering, geography, geology, geotechnology, history, landscape design and writing were welcomed.

The online component of the Wild Ways project was a Group Residency that took place in October 2021 with residents whose remarkable range of practices spanned art, walking, (cultural) geography, performing arts, urban theory, (landscape) architecture, theatre, dance, anthropology, publishing ...

In Jan 2022 a co-authored public sharing of material generated during the Wild Ways online residency, 2021 was launched in a bespoke online event that included presentations of residents' practices and research by residents.

APPROACH

Working across site-specific, participatory, socially engaged and digital art and performance practices the Group Residency took place between 17 - 23 Oct 2022 in and around Collemacchia, situated in Italy's Molise region where inhabitants are attempting to reinvigorate their community in the face of significant environmental and cultural change.

Working with as a group of residents from diverse cultures and creative disciplines through geographically remote, synchronous and collaborative place-based making processes the participants generated and shared global and local knowledge, and strategies for imagining the futures of fragile cultural and environmental ecologies.

The Group Residency provided opportunities for creative practitioners to share and establish a bank of knowledge and creative strategies, both globally interconnected and hyper local, digital and place-based, for imagining the futures of fragile cultural and environmental ecologies.

The residency provided a partially-structured and hands-on programme of site-based ways of working that are shared to enable residents to develop their skills and understanding of how to investigate site as part of a creative practice and for public presentation to a global audience. The residency experience was designed to stimulate experimentation through collective and individual production, research, and co-learning. Participants investigated, shared and connected their experiences of and ways of working in their own place in the world with those of others through facilitated co-creating and co-presenting modes.

Guided by the leading artists and using a combination of platforms for transmitting and presenting audio/visual/textual and located media, residents shared guided walks and readings in lost, renewed or fragile places in the residency's natural environment. Members of the local community who hold precious knowledge of walking routes, architectural and local history past and present, and collecting, archiving and presenting, contributed to bespoke sessions. V
isits to the Winterline Museum in Venafro and il Museo per la Memoria Storica del Territorio in Filignano provided the participants with a deep understanding of the local culture and history.

The residency programme included time for residents to work individually or collaboratively, developing work in progress.

The Wild Ways project establishes global perspectives, understandings, protocols and digital methods for remote and intercultural collaboration and enabled residency participants to approach Collemacchia's community and environment informed and with foresight and care.

The Museum of Loss and Renewal is currently working on creating a co-authored online publication that will bring together the amazing creative work that has been undertaking during this week-long immersive experience.

PARTICIPANTS
Natalie Doonan

"VerdunReality," multimedia performance by Natalie Doonan in Montreal, Canada. Photo by Ambre Marionneau ©2022.

Natalie Doonan is a new media and performance artist, writer and educator. She works at the intersection of visual art, sensory studies, performance studies and cultural geography. Her research focuses on food and the senses, technology, and the vitality of places.

Natalie's work has been shown in exhibitions and festivals across Canada and internationally, such as: the Cultural Olympiad for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the LIVE Performance Art Biennale, the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Montréal's Elektra Festival and BIAN, Nuit Blanche and Art Souterrain, and the Tunisian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, 2017. Her writing has appeared in professional and peer reviewed art and food culture publications such as: Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre Research in Canada, Public Art Dialogue, Canadian Food Studies, Gastronomica, the Senses & Society, and Performance Research.

Natalie is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at l'Université de Montréal, Canada.

www.lesensorium.com

Rachel Henson

Two people wearing headphones look with one eye into a cardboard optical device attached to a smart phone while swiping the screen.

I'm a lens based artist inventing ways my work can be porous to the living world. I create experiences about places and who and what inhabits them, asking audiences to view work where it was filmed, or in a way that involves their physicality.

I have a background in outdoor circus-theatre, trained in Beijing opera-theatre, produced arts events in Beijing, and work as a Chinese literary translator. Since returning to the UK, alongside my arts practise, I am involved in urban wilding and campaigning for the biodiversity of and human connection with the Brighton Downs, England.

https://www.outshift.org.uk/

Annabel Howland

Bournes, Deans, Bottoms and Brows (detail), 2018, wall installation at Altitude, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, England. Photo: Rob Harris

Annabel Howland was born in the UK, and lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Land, language and land use occupy central positions in Annabel's work. Her explorations of mycorrhizal fungi, finance and mapping through different media and languages, lead her to navigate such entangled themes as cooperation, competition, stability, instability, transparency, opacity, life and death.

Exhibitions/projects include: Durn That Road (Bradwolff Projects Amsterdam, 2019); Producers-Parasites-Hosts (Athens Biennale 2013 to VU Amsterdam 2018); At Altitude (Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, 2018); There is No Road (The Road is Made by Walking) (Laboral, Gijón, 2008); Drains, Cables, and Cuts (Silicon Fen) (King's Lynn/Ely, Film & Video Umbrella 2005-06); Terre tranchée (Centre Vu, Quebec City, 2002); Landscape Trauma in the Age of Scopophilia (London/Leeds, Autograph ABP, 2001).

www.annabelhowland.nl

Ainslie Murray

Ainslie Murray, Road Trip, 2021, installation view at Eden Garden, digital print on PVC, aluminium, brick clamps, river pebbles.

Ainslie Murray is an interdisciplinary artist and academic based in the Architecture Discipline in the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Her work explores the augmentation of architectural space through subtle realisations of forgotten and intangible spatial forces. The atmosphere and its relation to the lived experience are areas of special interest which have focused her practice-led research for over 15 years. Ainslie's work ranges from large-scale immersive installations and constructions, to film, painting, textiles and printed works.

Ainslie's principal interest is in forms of space-making that often escape attention, including ephemeral, minimal and immaterial forms of architecture. She makes work that investigates these forms of architecture in relation to climate and ecology, and frequently works in collaboration with others.

In her teaching, Ainslie questions the boundaries between art, architecture and landscape through a range of undergraduate and postgraduate design studios and interdisciplinary courses.

www.ainsliemurray.com

Laura Nanni

A map drawn from memory after a walk I took along the Toronto waterfront.

Laura Nanni is a Toronto/Tkaronto-based interdisciplinary artist, curator and producer. She has presented her artworks in public spaces and at festivals, galleries and theatres, including the International Festival of Performance Art, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Nuit Blanche, Harbourfront Centre, The Theatre Centre and Toronto Free Gallery (Toronto); Studio 303 (Montreal); LIFT (London); Angel Row and Bonington Gallery (Nottingham); Wunderbar (Newcastle); Homo Novus (Latvia); and Galapagos Art Space (New York).

Over the last 15 years, with frequent collaborator Sorrel Muggridge, she has created multiple site-specific works across Canada, Europe and the UK.

Laura is also the Artistic and Managing Director of SummerWorks, since 2016.

Recurring in her research and creative explorations is the process of walking, and aspects of mapping, navigation, and intersection (between public/private, virtual/real, scripted/accidental).

www.laurananni.com

Emily Orley

My fingers emit sparks. Photograph by Emily Orley.

Emily Orley is an independent scholar, artist and educator based in London, whose work includes performance, video, installation and hybrid modes of writing. She has published a range of chapters and articles that explore and enact practices of creative-critical writing, and in 2018 co-edited The Creative Critic: Writing As/About Practice with Routledge.

Her research interests often revolve around ideas to do with memory, maintenance and enchantment, and un-fixing notions of time, heritage and place.

Always open to new forms of experimentation, nothing inspires her more than lively discussions, new encounters, and unlikely assemblages. As a practitioner-researcher, she is a firm believer in breaking down the false binaries that separate practice and theory, making and thinking and writing about making.

www.emilyorley.com

Ivan Pope

Visiting the first monument.

I was first an artist, graduating from Goldsmiths' amid the chaos of 1990 with a vision for computer networks. I worked for a decade in installation and performance, making large scale site specific installations and film/performance installations while developing as an entrepreneur within the nascent Internet industry. Later I developed a practice in mapping and walking.

In 2015 I chose to focus on the production of fiction and non-fiction texts. This led me on a journey through a non-fiction to a PhD, in a mix of mythogeography and creative non-fiction.

As my research has developed I have been drawn back towards visual art practice, working somewhere on the interface between text and image. Since my work with GPS and mapping applications I have retained an interest in the combination of map and text, the interpenetration of topography and topology.

http://ivanpope.com

Jo Wheeler

Walk This Way [social practice project & guided walk] with Class 4, Mellers' Primary School (2017).

I am a visual artist and producer collaborating with others to consider approaches to support our sense of self and belonging. Starting explorations are often photographic, but extend to other media including film, sound, installation and procession.

Since 2016 I've been co-lead for Youth Landscapers Collective, collaborating with young people to tell landscape stories of their area to share at international festival Timber (The National Forest - Leicestershire). Other projects include pop-up museums in bus shelters (Transported - South Holland); Walk This Way, a multi-sensory guided walk co-designed and led by children (Primary - Nottingham); Legacy installation / party take-over of formal dining room with Telford young carers (National Trust - Shropshire).

I also value my role as Creative Mentor supporting young people in care through Derbyshire's Virtual School. In recent solo work I have been using durational approaches and applying social practice methods to investigate collaborations with site.

FACILITATORS

The Group Residency is lead by Tracy Mackenna & Edwin Janssen (The Museum of Loss and Renewal) and Misha Myers and Dee Heddon (The Walking Library).

Tracy Mackenna & Edwin Janssen are the founders and curators of The Museum of Loss and Renewal. Their collaborative art practice is a creative and discursive site where production, presentation, exchange, co-learning and research meet. The Museum of Loss and Renewal's key areas of focus are social relationships, the way places are inhabited and how personal objects reflect who we are. Tracy & Edwin work with international partners to devise and present multifaceted exhibition projects that address issues of societal concern such as well-being, aging, end of life and sustainability. They are highly experienced, award winning educators who have devised and lead multiple group learning projects situated within the international museum and gallery sector, and higher education.

Tracy Mackenna & Edwin Janssen

Misha Myers and Dee Heddon are co-creators of The Walking Library, inaugurated in 2012 as an ongoing art project that aims to bring together people, walking, books, and reading. Misha and Dee have co-authored numerous articles, artist's pages and essays and co-edited the edition 'On Libraries' for Performance Research (2017).

The Walking Library

Misha is Professor of Contemporary Performance and Head of School of Stage and Screen at the University of Greenwich, London. She creates and researches performance that is staged and moves between physical and digital environments and enables diverse perspectives, knowledges and experiences of place and how it matters politically, socially, economically and environmentally. She has presented and facilitated work with isolated and marginalized groups including refugees and asylum seekers, women and rural communities in a global context.

Dee holds the James Arnott Chair in Drama at the University of Glasgow. She is the author of many monographs, articles and essays, including Autobiography and Performance (2008), and has co-edited a number of collections including, most recently, It's All Allowed: The Performances of Adrian Howells (2016). She is currently working on Performing Forests, a monograph for Performing Landscapes, a new series for which she is co-editor with Sally Mackey.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/cca/staff/deirdreheddon/

GROUP RESIDENCIES INDIVIDUAL RESIDENCIES

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PLACE, PEOPLE and TIME: Wild Ways - The Museum of Loss and Renewal

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Wild Ways is offered for practitioners and researchers working in all creative disciplines and for those who have a strong interest in the investigation of site and place.

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Jo Wheeler, presenting current work during the WILD WAYS Online Event, 2023

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On 15 April 2023, we came together again in our Online Event that was a celebration, a revisiting of what took place during the 2022 WILD WAYS Group Residency, and a presentation of residents' current practice and research.

Continuing the spirit of inclusion generated in the WILD WAYS Group Residency, a number of guests were invited to join us, to listen, question and to think about their own practices in relation to the work undertaken during, and due to, the WILD WAYS Group Residency.

Our guests were Jessica Emsley, Dillon De Give, Lee Hassall, Mhairi Killin, Blake Morris, Caehryn Tinker and Imogen Stidworthy.

During the Online Event's ‘Thinking Sessions’, each resident in turn talked and thought through speaking while the rest of the participants listened. Time was made for questions, both spoken and written in the Zoom ‘chat’ facility.

Photograph by The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Natalie Doonan, presenting current work during the WILD WAYS Online Event, 2023

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Photograph by The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Ainslie Murray, presenting current work during the WILD WAYS Online Event, 2023

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Photograph by The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Emily Orley, presenting current work during the WILD WAYS Online Event, 2023

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Photograph by The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Annabel Howland, presenting current work during the WILD WAYS Online Event, 2023

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Photograph by The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Pierluigi Iannarelli (right), Combat Road Museum, Cerasuolo, Filignano

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Tracy interviewed Filignano's Pierluigi Iannarelli, for WILD WAYS, in October 2022.

Pierluigi is a UI/UX Designer, creating user-friendly interfaces that enable users to understand how to use complex technical products. His artistic/design work invloves AR/VR to propose future scenarios for the environment in and around Collemacchia and Filignano.

Also a member of Filignano's 'Pro Loco', Pierluigi is part of the group of volunteers who devise, produce and present cultural events that take place in Filignano’s villages.

Pierluigi responded to questions about place, belonging, technologies:

What does a land/territory connection (Filignano) mean to you?

I am very attached to my land, to the places, to the people and to the memories of those people who are no longer here, but who have cemented the bond I have with this place. For me it is very important to live my life in harmony and our territory offers us peace, nature and a community of honest people.

What is the role / what are the possibilities of technology to preserve / communicate the importance of people's connection with the land / place?

Technology plays a very important role both in preserving -  memories, works and traditions - and in disseminating and educating new generations. We can really do a lot with the tools that technology offers us today, even art in all its forms can support the dissemination of work, bringing people together and sending them a clearer and more indelible message than a traditional tool, like a simple transcription in a book, because the message is conveyed and received through the emotional sphere by fixing a memory in our mind.

Beyond the artistic aspect there is a sector - tourism - in which new technological tools can be a support for guiding and informing in the absence of a (human) guide, and by showing in real time changes that work has made across time; you just need to open your mind.

What do you think of the generational differences in the connection to the earth/territory?

Specifically in reference to my territory, but Italy is full of similar realities: a strength of these small realities was being able to connect with elderly people on a daily basis, able to pass on knowledge, stories, values. The new generations have not had these life teachers, and today's society, our hectic lifestyles, have led people to chase happiness through wealth, when in my opinion one should only find one's inner balance. It is a pity that traditions, linguistic forms and architectural works are being lost: it is our job to preserve and improve what we have; we should not be indifferent.

Translation from Italian by Tracy Mackenna for WILD WAYS 2022

1) Cosa significa per te un collegamento terra/territorio (Filignano)?

Sono molto legato alla mia terra, ai luoghi, alle persone e ai ricordi di quelle persone che ora non ci sono più, ma che hanno cimentato il legame che ho con questo posto. Per me è molto importante vivere la mia vita in armonia e il nostro territorio ci offre quiete, natura e una comunità di persone oneste.

2) Qual è il ruolo / quali sono le possibilità della tecnologia per preservare / comunicare l’importanza del legame delle persone con la terra / il luogo?

La tecnologia ha un ruolo molto importante sia nel preservare: ricordi, opere e tradizioni, sia per divulgare ed educare le nuove generazioni. Possiamo veramente fare molto con gli strumenti che la tecnologia ci offre oggi, anche l’arte in tutte le sue forme può dare un supporto nell’opera di divulgazione, avvicinando le persone e trasmettendo loro un messaggio più chiaro e indelebile rispetto ad uno strumento tradizionale, come una semplice trascrizione su un libro, perché il messaggio viene veicolato e recepito attraverso la sfera emozionale fissando un ricordo nella nostra mente.
Oltre l’aspetto artistico c’è un settore, quello turistico, in cui i nuovi strumenti tecnologici possono essere da supporto per guidare ed informare anche in assenza di una guida, o possono mostrare in tempo reale i cambiamenti che quell’opera ha avuto nel tempo, si può fare molto bisognerebbe solo aprire la mente.

3) Cosa ne pensi delle differenze generazionali nel collegamento alla terra/territorio?

Nello specifico in riferimento al mio territorio, ma in Italia è pieno di realtà simili, un punto di forza di queste piccole realtà era potersi confrontare quotidianamente con persone anziane, in grado di trasmetterti conoscenze, storie, valori. Le nuove generazioni non hanno avuto questi maestri di vita, attualmente la società odierna, i nostri stili di vita frenetici, hanno portato le persone a rincorrere la felicità attraverso la ricchezza, quando a mio avviso bisognerebbe solo trovare il proprio equilibrio interiore. È un peccato che si perdano tradizioni, forme linguistiche e opere architettoniche, è compito nostro preservare e migliorare ciò che abbiamo non bisognerebbe essere indifferenti.

Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Clearing rewilded dry-stone terraces; wood for domestic fuel, Selvone

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Listen to the Audio Walk here

This audio walk was given to residents to use before the start of the PLACE, PEOPLE and TIME: WILD WAYS Group Residency.

Originally made for the Place, People and Time: Wild Ways 2021 online Group Residency, it contains shared readings, selected and spoken across a variety of locations in Australia, Scotland and Italy by Dee Heddon and Misha Myers (The Walking Library) and Tracy Mackenna (The Museum of Loss of Renewal).

We invite you to listen to the audio walk in a quiet place near you that may be fragile, lost, renewed or re-wilded in some way.

We recommend that you listen to the audio with headphones for the best sound quality as it includes some moments of 3D audio. However, in the interests of your safety, do take care to stay aware of your surroundings, carry water with you and wear the appropriate clothing for the weather and terrain.

Video recording by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

Audio Walk for WILD WAYS, 2021, edited by Misha Myers, with contributions from Tracy Mackenna, Dee Heddon and Misha Myers.

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Wild horses above Collemacchia, October 2022

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Video Recording by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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During the week of the Group Residency, Dee Heddon, The Walking Library, shared her BEDTIME STORIES, a series of readings made for residents and facilitators to listen to at the end of each day, and as food for thought for the new day ahead.

Emma Cocker, The Yes of the No

Elizabeth Jane Burnett, Grass Diaries

Elizabeth Jane Burnett, Protozoa

Tove Jansson, The Wolf

Mohamad Naleh, Nightrise

Angela Carter, Rolando & Brunilde

A.A.Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Ainslie Murray showing work during REFLECTIVE END NOTES session

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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During REFLECTIVE END NOTES residents shared their reflections, observations, and new insights.

Looping back to the introductory presentations each gave at the start of WILD WAYS, The questions being addressed were where am I now, what new questions do I have and what are my ambitions?

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Laura Nanni, Beginning of the Nightrise Walk

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Photograph by Laura Nanni

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Beginning of Last Group Walk- From Dark to Light - October 22, 2022

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Emily Orley reading work during REFLECTIVE END NOTES session

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Natalie Doonan showing work during REFLECTIVE END NOTES session

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Laura Nanni showing work during REFLECTIVE END NOTES session

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Ivan Pope showing work during REFLECTIVE END NOTES session

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Annabel Howland showing work during REFLECTIVE END NOTES session

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Jo Wheeler showing work during REFLECTIVE END NOTES session

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Ramaria formosa, coral fungus at Chiesa della Madonna del Morzone di Selvone

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Collemacchia, parish of Filignano, Molise, Italy

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The Group Residency took place in Collemacchia, a small village within Italy’s National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, a protected area of exceptional significance and beauty. Engagement with the natural world begins on the doorstep and the stunning mountainous landscape offers an excellent environment for reflective practice. The ancient, undisturbed and extensive terrain holds a rich and complex history visible in the area’s architecture, customs, agricultural lands and forests.

The area is sparsely populated by villages that are largely trilingual Italian-French-English due to the large community of emigrants who continually move between European nations, stemming from economic migration dating from approx. 1850. The village has been home to Tracy Mackenna’s family for centuries and the curators of The Museum of Loss and Renewal foster strong links with the local community which is highly supportive of the Residency Programme.

Setting out from Collemacchia always on foot, activities took place on Samnite and Roman paths, amongst architectural structures, and near water sources. The mountains' dry-stone terraces that were once fully productive provided a geographical structure on which to walk, read aloud, listen, converse and share.

Photograph of Collemacchia by Mark Kilsdonk for The Museum of Loss and Renewal

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Dry-stone terraces, Colle Romano, Nightrise Walk

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Ivan Pope, Rachel Henson, Jo Wheeler and Emily Orley walking through Le Mura di Mennella / The Walls of Mennella, Mennella

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Setting off on foot from Collemacchia, this guided walk, led by Tracy Mackenna, followed the mountain paths up to the church of the Madonna di Morzone at Selvone, and onwards towards the area known locally as ‘Le Mura’ / ‘The Walls’.

The relatively contemporary village of Mennella sits below ‘Le Mura’, and has grown from the abandonment of the ancient settlement.

Above Mennella and overlooking the gorge that contains the now frequently dry river Rio Chiaro, on the steepest slope sit the ruins of the striking quadrangular building the ‘Torre di Mennella’ / ‘Tower of Mennella’.

The ‘Le Mura’ / ‘The Walls’ complex is situated on grounds that extend over a vast area, documented in the Chronicon Vulturnense in 962, between current Filignano, Cerasuolo and Colli a Volturno. The territory constitutes an internal valley that is crossed precisely by the Rio Chiaro which today still pours what remains of its waterfall into the river Volturno.

What is especially interesting is the network of paths, given form by the dry-stone walls that edge each path, that stretches out from the ancient nucleus, the ‘Torre di Mennella’ / ‘Tower of Mennella’. Being only a metre and a half wide means that the paths were not used by vehicles, evident also in the presence of rough steps on the steepest parts.

Remarkably, this is a network of foot paths and hoof paths - humans and animals walking together. The vast mule track route is almost intact, preserved due to lack of use - there is no tourism in the area - and to the rewilding that is the result of local families ceasing to work the small terraced patches of ground.

The route climbs halfway up the adjoining hill, passing by the church of the Madonna del Morzone above Selvone, and through the territory which is referred to by the name ‘Roman’ suggesting that before the Benedictine intervention there could have been an original garrison of arimanni*, reaching Filignano Vecchio (Old Filignano).

The arimanni were a warrior class of freemen in Lombard and later Frankish Italy.

Video recording by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Walking through Le Mura di Mennella, an extensive network of interconnected dry-stone pathways, leading to the medieval tower of Mennelle / La Torre di Mennella

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Mushrooms pushing through leaf litter accumulation,  Le Mura di Mennella / The Walls of Mennella, Mennella

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Limestone, Le Mura di Mennella / The Walls of Mennella, Mennella

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Recent tree-felling in Le Mura di Mennella, an extensive network of dry-stone pathways; rewilding due to land no longer being worked woodland to be restored

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Rachel Henson reading the poem 'Loch Avon' by Nan Shepherd, In the Cairngorms (1934), at the medieval Tower of Mennella / La Torre di Mennella, Mennella

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Luciano Bucci, President of the Association Winterline (Winterline Museum), Venafro

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Luciano Bucci explained the impact of WWII on Collemacchia, the parish of Filignano and the surrounding area from the perspective of the neighbouring town of Venafro. The after-effects of the war are tangible and visible in the land, material remnants, buildings, and everyday conversation.

The Winterline* Venafro association is testimony to the friendship of Luciano Bucci and Renato Dolcigno who have since their teenage years shared a focussed passion that led to them creating the first permanent historical-military exhibition concerning the WWII events that affected the municipality of Venafro and the neighbouring areas. Luciano is a local resident who, for almost three decades has been scouring the mountains where some of the most bloody battles between the Germans and the Allies during WWII took place. He is a Luciano is a tireless and passionate researcher, who has found and collected incredible amounts of memorabilia along the Winterline. A remarkable collection has been established, equal to that of a national museum.

The artefacts in the collection have been found in the area that stretches from Venafro to the nearby Mainarde mountains, that includes Collemacchia, by Luciano, Renato and Donato, walking and riding horseback across the terrain. The material exhibited in the exhibition is painstakingly restored, catalogued and maintained.

International family members of soldiers who fought on the Winter Line, researchers, writers, historians and curators etc. are regularly hosted by the Winterline Venafro association.

*'Winter Line' was the Allied semi-official designation of the series of German defence lines in Italy, in the area to the south of Rome, constructed primarily by the Organisation 'Todt' (1943/44). The Winter Line operations, lasting from 15 November 1943 to 15 January 1944, continued the Allied campaign to drive the Germans out of southern Italy. The underlying plan was to keep pressure on the enemy and, if possible, to break through towards Rome.

Troops spent much longer than expected on the freezing mountains, and they left behind a vast number of artefacts such as tools, tinned food, tents, knives, uniforms, radios, even false teeth which were everyday items to those who lived in the army encampments.

Video recording by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Natalie Doonan, Laura Nanni, Ainslie Murray and Luciano Bucci, President of the Association Winterline (Winterline Museum), Venafro

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Luciano Bucci, President of the Association Winterline (Winterline Mus

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Interview with Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Walking from Le Mura di Mennella to Chiesa della Madonna del Morzone di Selvone

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Walking out of Collemacchia, towards the ossuary and the ancient church of San Eleuterio, above Filignano

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Misha Myers, The Walking Library, reading from Tim Ingold, 'Lines', at the Church of San Eleuterio, Filignano

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Guided walk from Collemacchia to the ossuary by the ancient church of San Eleuterio, Filignano, led by Tracy Mackenna

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STORYLINES was a meeting between residents and facilitators, and one of Filignano's community elders, Eugenio Verrecchia, the Founder and Custodian of il Museo per la Memoria Storica del Territorio / The Museum for the Historical Memory of the Territory that occupies the top floor of Filignano's Primary School.

To reach the Museum, we walked from the village of Collemacchia along the bottom of la Pineta, or the Pine Hill, to Filignano, passing the ossario (ossuary) by the ancient church of San Eleuterio that is strategically positioned between contemporary Filignano (Felënnànë in molisano) and the original settlement of Fundiliano.

Cleared by local people just before the start of the Covid pandemic, the ossuary stores the human bones of people initially buried in mass and unmarked graves, dating back to the plague that emanated from Naples in 1656, covering a large part of the Italian peninsula.

Video recording by Misha Myers, The Walking Library, for WILD WAYS

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Tracy Mackenna 19 Oct 2022 Ossuary, Wild Ways

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The Ossuary, Filignano, dating back to the plague that emanated from Naples in 1656

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Rachel Henson, Natalie Doonan, Ainslie Murray and Laura Nanni at the ossuary and church of San Eleutario, above Filignano

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Natalie Doonan documenting the ossuary above Filignano, using an ‘imperfect’ photographic tool that creates fragmentary traces of places; “layers of loss”

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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References, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, WILD WAYS, 2022

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References (Facilitators) WILD WAYS 2022

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Jo Wheeler, View from my Reading Spot, 2022

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Before the start of the Group Residency, via email / Place, Belonging, Collaboration, Young people, Social practice

During the Group Residency, via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Group Chat / [19/10/2022, 21:18:00] Jo Wheeler: New keywords: Sensual geographies, feral, transformation, simulacra

[23/10/2022, 09:01:57] Jo Wheeler: New Keywords:
Constellation
Attunement
Embodied
Potential
Generosity
(via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Chat)

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Jo Wheeler, My Expanded Notebook, detail, 2022

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Jo Wheeler, Extract from my Expanded Notebook

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Wild Ways made a space for me to focus, connect and learn from and with others also interested in collaborating with people and place - and discover more about creative walking practices.

It’s interesting to reflect on the multi-ways we learnt together about Collemacchia’s rich landscape story; through voices, objects, texts and imagery  - but also through the experience of making connections with place through our walking bodies.

This shaped my reading/conversations that week, asking: how do geographies interact with all our bodily senses and how does that translate into how we make sense of our environment and our idea of self and belonging within that? How can I use more embodied approaches to support my place-based work with young people?

Wild Ways shifted my thinking and helped develop a new strand of practice/research. It’s also introduced me to some wonderful, creative people with several opportunities to continue the connections we began.

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Jo Wheeler, Sensory Walking Together, Silent Walking into the Dawn, 2022

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Jo Wheeler, Sensory Walking Together_Silent Walking into the Dawn

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Emily Orley, Collemacchia collage 1, 2022

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Before the start of the Group Residency, via email / Place, Memory, Maintenance, Enchantment, Solidarity

[19/10/2022, 21:22:17] Emily Orley:
Threads
Other times
Different timings
Air light
Care
(via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Group Chat)

[22/10/2022, 15:30:58] Emily Orley: New keywords: Stories, stones, enchantment, threads, other rhythms
(via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Chat)

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Before the start of the Group Residency, via email / Limen, Landscape, Landmarking, Autoethnography, Memory

During the Group Residency, via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Group Chat / [19/10/2022, 21:21:59] Ivan Pope: New keywords
Meshwork
Palimpstext
Echoes
Trauma

[23/10/2022, 08:52:21] Ivan Pope: New Keywords: Maze
Pattern
Mist
Echo
Resonance
(via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Chat)

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I signed up for the residency because I wanted to work out how walking fitted into my practice.

Despite having just spent four years doing a PhD with a walking writer as supervisor, I was unsure whether I was a walker or not. Further, I had spent those years walking in the landscape of Auschwitz-Birkenau and was wondering whether this was tainting my viewpoint.

During the residency, as hoped, I loosed the constraints of a tainted landscape and relished each and every walk. The act of readings on walks was profoundly revelatory to me and I immediately understood that this needed to be a part of any walking practice I might continue with.

Around the walks I collected fragments from the landscape and constructed schematic sculptures in the studio and I collected sound fragments from the landscape with a desire to map the space in sound.

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Laura Nanni, Reference for Mending/ Research, il Museo per la Memoria Storica del Territorio / The Museum for the Historical Memory of the Territory, 2022

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A photo taken during a group research trip in Filignano. This image sparked my idea to experiment with mending leaves, in addition to translating walking routes onto fabric.

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Reference for Mending: Research in Local Archives - Mended Bowl

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Before the start of the Group Residency, via email / Archive, Care, Connection, Landscape, Motion

During the Group Residency, via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Group Chat / [19/10/2022, 22:05:13] Laura Nanni: New keywords: warmth, possibility, hand talking, threads, coexisting

[23/10/2022, 08:50:11] Laura Nanni: New keywords: crossroads, melodic, intimate, repair, touch
(via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Group Chat)

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Over the course of the Wild Ways residency, I engaged in both group and solo research.

I overlaid and experimented with past walking scores on the Collemacchia landscape, I engaged in reading about outdoor signs and clues as a guide for walking and navigation, collected organic materials and took photographs and video on solo and group walks to act as raw material for future installation work.

I created a new walking score, ‘Directions for a Walk by Hand’ – the beginning of a new performance which I will be developing and testing over summer 2023 in Canada, Italy and South Africa.

As a direct result of my connections made with colleagues at the residency, I will be performing at a conference in Halifax, Canada in June 2023, and participating in an interdisciplinary residency in July 2023.

Long term, I am very interested in building the relationship between Italian and Canadian residency and presentation platforms, and have started research into funding opportunities to make this possible.

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Laura Nanni, Tracing Wild Ways Group Walk - October 18, 2022

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A drawing of our Wild Ways Group Walk from Collemacchia to Filignano Vecchio on October 18th using GPS technology through the Vima Walk app.

The numbers correspond to stopping points for reading and/or learning about the history of the land. These traces led me to translating the drawings onto fabric through thread. Another possibility is making ink from foraging on the land and translating the drawings into printed maps.

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Tracing Wild Ways Group Walk- October 18, 2022

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Laura Nanni, Directions for A Walk by Hand (DRAFT), 2022

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Score, based on research from 2022 Wild Ways Group Residency.

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Laura Nanni, Reference for ‘A Walk by Hand’ A: October 18, 2022

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A photo of me reading from ‘The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs,’ by Tristan Gooley, section related to sunlight, pages 201-204, with instructions for an experiment
with use of the hand for shadowplay.

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Reference for 'A Walk by Hand' A: October 18, 2022

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Laura Nanni, Reference for 'Translation Drawing’, October 2022

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Twice over the course of the residency I led participants through the activity of translation drawing, which involves looking out at a vista, and describing what one sees to a partner, while they draw the image on a page, using their back as a temporary ‘table surface.’ The image is translated through words into line form, both on the page, and in a tactile way as it can simultaneously be felt as a trace on their back. This lookout point is one of the places where we stopped for the exercise.

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Laura Nanni, Reference for 'Translation Drawing’, 2022

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Laura Nanni, Mending in Progress. Mixed media - Collemacchia leaves, needle, thread. Documentation of a series created using leaves found in situ, October 2022

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Before the start of the Group Residency, via email / Walking, Architecture, Visual art, Landscape, Essentiality (via email)

During the Group Residency, via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Group Chat / [19/10/2022, 21:17:15] Ainslie Murray: *New Keywords*
Mobility
Baggage
Itinerancy
Dissolution
Haze

[23/10/2022, 08:50:44] Ainslie Murray: Newest keywords:
Fog
Fireflies
Flow
Trust
Depth
(via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Chat)

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During the Wild Ways residency, I worked on an ongoing project: The Registry of Itinerant Architectures. I considered each walk as a mobile thinking laboratory in which I could quietly work through various aspects of the Registry whilst enacting the mobility I was investigating. I thought about the different possible structures of the Registry, about methods of recording encounters with itinerant architectures, about typologies of mobility and their relationship to architectural practice, and about practices of archive-building in relation to unstable or disappearing content.

I engaged with Wild Ways residents by asking them to share lists of what they carried on each of our walks. These lists revealed several fascinating items that fellow residents deemed absolutely essential to their individual mobilities and which will now feature in the Registry: walking sticks, secateurs, shadows, fog, stretcher (as attached to horse), hairy windsock and a tuning meditation.

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Ainslie Murray, Photograph of public signage in the main street of Collemacchia, Chiesetta del Morzone, 2022

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Ainslie Murray, Photograph of public signage in the main street of Collemacchia, Chiesetta del Morzone, 2022

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Ainslie Murray, Photograph of public signage in the main street of Collemacchia, Collemacchia Map, 2022

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Ainslie Murray, photograph of public signage in the main street of Collemacchia, Collemacchia Map, 2022

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Ainslie Murray, Experimental Section Image, Collemacchia Day Walk, 2022

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Ainslie Murray, Experimental Section Image, Collemachia Day Walk, 2022

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Ainslie Murray, Experimental Section Image, Collemacchia Dawn Walk, 2022

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Ainslie Murray, Experimental Section Image, Collemachia Dawn Walk, 2022

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Annabel Howland, Way-marker made by local mountain bike group that clears the ancient paths that are being concealed due to rewilding, 2022

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Before the start of the Group Residency, via email / Fungi, Geology, Migration, Scale, Time

During the Group Residency, via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Group Chat / [21/10/2022, 09:30:12] Annabel Howland: Late keywords: knots, nodes, loose ends, proximities

[23/10/2022, 08:59:11] Annabel Howland: New keywords:
Pulsing
Pacing (yourself)
Listening
Loose ends/sites of possibility (still)
(via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Chat)

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Wild Ways was a light on the horizon viewed from the edge of lockdown. A route back into language and a community of making after too long. This group was perfect post-pandemic company.

‘Constellation, not sequencing, carries truth’. Fellow resident Ivan Pope introduced this statement by Olga Tokarczuk about her novel Flight. It has resonated with me ever since and is buttressing my approach to work I am making now. My work takes shape in constellations, often. I’ve used the word occasionally, but never head on. Constellation is now a stone in my pocket that I will carry for a while. It makes sense at a subcutaneous level.

Walking, talking, drawing, listening, sharing books, reading passages.

War and fear were on our minds as we walked up through the dark and into the mist.

I'm making drawings with ink from oak apples (oak galls) we collected around Collemacchia. They might become a film, or an installation.

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Annabel Howland, Oak gall used to make ink for drawings, 2022

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Annabel Howland, Monte Pantano, Oak gall ink drawing, ink made from oak galls collected from oak trees around Collemacchia, 2022

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Annabel Howland, Oak gall ink drawing, ink made from oak galls collected from oak trees around Collemacchia, 2022

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Rachel Henson, Bins forward and reversed, 2022

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A sketch to see how the footage might feel as an interactive work.

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Before the start of the Group Residency, via email / Encounters with the other-than-human, Walking and happiness, Attention restoration theory and related theories, Biodiversity and happiness, Ways of reading a landscape

During the Group Residency, via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Group Chat / 19/10/2022, 21:23:58] Rachel Henson: New keywords
Text free?
One mountain peak
Trying too hard
My tribe
Cared for

[23/10/2022, 08:57:40] Rachel Henson: New keywords:
still
solitude
see
courage
experienced
(via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Chat)

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I walked out of the village to living green surroundings and back again from different directions, making scratch videos of the transitions. Playing with the speed, forwards and reverse of these point-of-view journeys I have begun to notice what sticks in the mind depending on the direction of travel, what new becomes apparent at different speeds.

From the roof terrace of The Museum of Loss and Renewal I watched geese and hens appearing and disappearing on paths at different levels on the slope of the neighbouring farmyard, envisaging a filmed projection where elements at different depths and heights in the scene are animated by the viewer.

The readings and conversations over the residency week consolidated and developed my thinking on what it is that affects what we notice in our surroundings. I want to play with and hone that shift in perception in relation to the more than human world.

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Rachel Henson, Photos in collection of il Museo per la Memoria Storica del Territorio / The Museum for the Historical Memory of the Territory, Filignano, 2022

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I like the direct gaze of the young woman and the joy of the older woman with her stylised dog print dress.

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Rachel Henson, Gleanings from my trouser turn-ups at the end of the residency, 2022

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Gleaning from my turn ups at the end of the residency.JPG

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I noticed the distinctive shape of one particular mountain (Monte Pantano) as I walked out of the village from different directions.

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Rachel Henson, Reflection One, in il Museo per la Memoria Storica del Territorio / The Museum for the Historical Memory of the Territory, Filignano, 2022

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Bright outside greenery reflected on the picture glass of the romanticised paintings of villagers past, to be found in the museum.

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Before the start of the Group Residency, via email / Sensory studies, Emplacement, Inter-species communication, Wild food, Multi-media performance

During the Group Residency, via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Group Chat / [19/10/2022, 21:15:45] Natalie Doonan: New keywords: bring-a-dish / mew / action

[23/10/2022], Natalie Doonan: New keywords:
Losing
Ruins
Holes
Nightrise
Sounding
Wells
(via WhatsApp WILD WAYS Chat)

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During the sleepless flight to Collemacchia, I listened to ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’, by Rebecca Solnit. The book underlines the value of getting lost for the process of discovery. This idea became a framework for my experience in Wild Ways. One week is such a short time, but so precious in the context of a busy life that rushes by in a ceaseless onslaught of tasks to fulfill.

My objective for the residency was to eschew objectives and outcomes. I wanted to simply get lost. In a most unexpected surprise, I emerged from the week with a whole new project.

I experimented with a photographic tool that is designed to capture everything. I documented abandoned buildings that are in varying states of ruin. The tool that I used to record these sites is imperfect. In its pursuit of complete capture, it leaves gaps, resulting in fragmentary traces of places that are also full of holes. These images are about layers of loss.

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Natalie Doonan, Looking on to the microchip factory, Elettroplastica Filignanese S.r.l., Filignano, 2022

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Natalie Doonan, Ainslie Murray working at the studio, 2022

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Natalie Doonan, Jo Wheeler reading from ‘Think Like a Mountain’, Aldo Leopold, 2022, at the ossuary and church of San Eleutario, Filignano

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Natalie Doonan, Ivan Pope reading from ‘Teaching a Stone to Talk’, Annie Dillard, 2022

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Natalie Doonan, Misha Myers reading from ‘Lines', Tim Ingold, 2022

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Dry-stone terraces, Colle Romano, Nightrise Walk. 

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

NIGHTRISE WALK was a journey that we made together, in silence.

Leaving Collemacchia village at 05:00 in complete darkness and without the aid of torches, Tracy led the group up, out of the village and higher into the hushed mountain.

The purpose of the walk was to bring us together towards the end of the Group Residency, in a way that was different to any of the work that we had done during the week. Moving almost imperceptibly from darkness into light allowed us to be attentive to ourselves, and to our fellow group members, while silence heightened our listening and attuning abilities.

Autumn’s stillness enveloped us as we climbed the rough white limestone path, through a rising corridor of beech, birch, oak, wild cherry and pine. A viscous yet veil-like mist enshrouded our passage, dampening imminent sounds of animals, birds and insects and early rising farmers.

The soil’s own smell - petrichor - that comes from microscopic bacteria that continuously produce a compound called geosmin, was amplified by the air’s cloud-moisture and dew.

Invisible in the darkness, Tracy guided the group to a natural arena, an area on the mountainside where the trees on the formerly productive terraced ground had been recently felled.

Resident Natalie Doonan had been invited to engage the group in an exercise based on Pauline Oliveros’ ‘World Wide Tuning Network’. Elegantly simple, a bond of community is formed through sound. A relational, immersive activity, it is stunning and richly reflective. Devoid of the visual, we enacted a shifting chord-mass borne from our best efforts as deep listeners. Oliveros‘ own instructions to participants were to “Inhale deeply; exhale on the note of your choice; listen to the sounds around you, and match your next note to one of them; on your next breath make a note no one else is making; repeat. Call it listening out loud.”.

Resuming our path, footfalls were the only new sounds in the dark mountain as we ascended towards Colle Romano and the beautiful stone Roman well that nourishes bone-white cows and wild horses who gather to share the water from the underground freshwater spring.

Following an animal track, we reached a recently exposed, very special, 'capanna'. For two hundred years this unique dry-stone pastoral hut has been supporting and is being supported by the long run of stone wall that stretches from on high to the valley below, traversing layers of dry-stone terraces.

At dawn, 07:24, we turned to walk carefully and quietly down and into Collemacchia, arriving in the light of 08:15.

Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Map showing local pathways and architectural structures, il Museo per la Memoria del Territorio / The Museum for the Historical Memory of the Territory

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Misha Myers, The Walking Library, reading from Elif Shafak, The Island of Missing Trees, under a Collemacchia fig tree

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Jo Wheeler, Rachel Henson, Annabel Howland, Eugenio Verrecchia, il Museo per la Memoria del Territorio / The Museum for the Historical Memory of the Territory

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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Jo Wheeler, Map (residents communicating route to each other), 2022

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Jo Wheeler, Map on napkin (residents) 2022

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I began the residency with the loose plan of making a collage or assemblage but found that, over the course of the week, the work I was doing was about listening.

It was about listening to the people who belonged to that place talk about their experiences of it, over time (e.g. Tracy’s own childhood memories, and Luciano Bucci, curator of the Winterline museum in Venafro), but also listening to stories about bigger histories of the place (the ravages of extreme poverty and mass migration, the Second World War, the Battle of San Pietro), as well as to conversations between fellow residents about what we were reading and making then and there.

I became increasingly interested in the blur between fact and fiction, and the grey area in between where memory resides. Inspired by Saidiya Hartman’s concept of Critical Fabulation, Jane Rendell’s method of site-writing, and Doreen Massey’s definition of place, I ended up composing a piece of writing in response to the things that I had heard over the week, arising from, and in honour of, Collemacchia. A ‘situated fabulation’ perhaps.

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Annabel Howland, Oak gall ink drawing, ink made from oak galls collected from oak trees around Collemacchia, 2022

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Emily Orley, Collemacchia collage 2, 2022

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Nightrise Walk, Sound recording on Colle Romano by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Emily Orley, Collemacchia collage 3, 2022

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Emily Orley, Collemacchia collage 4, 2022

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Guided walk from Collemacchia to Filignano Vecchio (Old Filignano), up and through La Pineta, led by Tracy Mackenna

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PLACE, PEOPLE AND TIME was our first collective guided walk, led by Tracy Mackenna. It took us through Collemacchia's lanes and off the main road, into the pine hill, or La Pineta. Ascending slowly, walking mostly in single file along the narrow footpath, Tracy told of how the pine trees were planted by many of Collemacchia and Filignano's community elders when, as primary school children, a significant percentage of their educaiton took place outdoors.

Emerging from the shade of the trees, the land and how it has been formed and 'scaped' by labour and war opened up, framed by the Apennine and Mainarde mountain ranges.

Conversation revolved around the interrelationships of place, people and time, as Tracy recounted stories about the local community, its people's histories, migration, issues currently being faced due to ageing and depopulation, changes in labour patterns, the remarkable rate of rewilding and the opportunities that brings, and how the community might reconsider or reconfigure itself in the post Covid pandemic era.

Video recording by Misha Myers, The Walking Library, for WILD WAYS

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Tracy Mackenna 18 Oct 2022 Collemacchia to Pineta, Wild Ways