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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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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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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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Ivan Pope read from 'Auschwitz and After' by Charlotte Delbo, (1995), at the site of the capanna, pastoral structure, Colle Romano 

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Video recording by Misha Myers, The Walking Library, for 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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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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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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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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Rachel Henson 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Photograph by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, for WILD WAYS

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Natalie Doonan's account of 'The World Wide Tuning Meditation' in the darkness of the mountain.

"During our Nightrise walk, we stopped in a clearing and I led an exercise by composer Pauline Oliveros called The World Wide Tuning Meditation. In this piece, participants sing a tone with each out breath, alternating between matching the pitch of a distant singer, and introducing a new tone to the group. An improvisational, communal performance rang out for a few brief minutes, on the mountain, under the stars.

This was an exciting opportunity for me to try this with a keen group of like-minded walkers. I am interested in it as an exercise to develop sensory atunement to the environment, a practice that I am ever trying to develop in my work and life."

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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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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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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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Photograph 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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Ivan Pope reading from Annie Dillard, 'Teaching a Stone to Talk'

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

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Dry-stone terraces on the mountainside above Collemacchia, cleared of trees in 2022

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Dry-stone walls were built by industrious farmers and nomadic shepherds to make tiny properties to grow barley, potatoes etc to feed large families. The 'maceri' are the piles of boulders generated by the communal, meticulous and painstaking clearing of the land that is now returning to an ancient state, due to rapid rewilding.

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

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Laura Nanni reading from Tristan Gooley, 'The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs'

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Video recording 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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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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Jo Wheeler, My Expanded Notebook, detail, 2022

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Jo Wheeler, Extract from my Expanded Notebook

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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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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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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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Emily Orley, Collemacchia collage 1, 2022

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Emily Orley, Collemacchia collage 2, 2022

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Emily Orley, Collemacchia collage 3, 2022

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Emily Orley, Collemacchia collage 4, 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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Emily Orley, Through two doors at once, video, 2022

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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, 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 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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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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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, 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, 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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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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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, 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, 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, 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, Oak gall ink drawing, ink made from oak galls collected from oak trees around Collemacchia, 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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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, Oak gall ink drawing, ink made from oak galls collected from oak trees around Collemacchia, 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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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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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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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, 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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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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Tracy interviewed Filignano's Mayor, Federica Cocozza, for WILD WAYS, in October 2022.

Federica was asked:

- What does a land / territory bond (Filignano) mean for the different generations of Filignanesi?

- What is the future of the bond of the people of Filignano with the territory / place (due to changes in the environment, employment, etc.)?

- What is the Administration's strategy to address the challenges we all face here?

Federica's responded by saying " ... that the bond between the different generations of Filignanesi with the land and the territory is still very strong today. Just think of the many children and grandchildren who keep returning to their paternal or maternal home every summer. Surely they are driven by a strong sense of belonging to this land and its origins. It is a strong bond that must be cultivated and if possible strengthened.

The goal must be to allow modern generations to keep the connection with this land and these traditions alive and real. To allow all this, however, I think it is certainly essential to implement services: because those who move to Filignano must be able to enjoy, in addition to uncontaminated nature, clean air and fabulous landscapes, also a series of services that can make the stay possible in this region.

I am referring to the fast internet connection that is being activated throughout the municipality, to the activities that enable, with great effort, trading to continue e.g. the pharmacy, the post office.

Filignano's location is an ideal location for many because it is close to major centres while nestled at the foot of the Mainarde hills. I believe that in the coming years there will be many people who will make a 'healthy' choice and decide to live in places like Filignano to enjoy all these particularities and fresh air.

We must continue to 'advertise' our beautiful country and at the same time implement concessions for those who decide to move here. This year we have launched a campaign to encourage families with children to move to Filignano, to bring their children here to school. The next move will be to encourage the recovery of abandoned buildings to encourage the emergence of entrepreneurial activities that enhance it. Let's continue on this path and the results will come.

I thank you, (Tracy, The Museum of Loss and Renewal), for everything you do for Filignano because initiatives like yours are the lifeblood of this country.".

Translation from Italian by Tracy Mackenna for WILD WAYS 2022

"Il legname tra le diverse generazioni di Filignanesi con la terra ed il territorio è ancora oggi molto forte. Basta pensare ai tanti figli e nipoti che continuano a tornare alla casa paterna o materna tutte le estati. Sicuramente sono spinti da un forte senso di appartenenza a questa terra e alle origini. È un legame forte che va coltivato e se possibile fortificato. L'obiettivo deve essere quello di consentire alle generazioni moderne di mantenere vivo e reale il collegamento con questa terra e queste tradizioni. Per consentire tutto questo però credo sia fondamentale sicuramente implementare i servizi: perché chi si trasferisce a Filignano deve poter godere, oltre che della natura incontaminata, dell'aria pulita e dei favolosi paesaggi, anche di una serie di servizi che possano rendere possibile la permanenza in questo paese. Mi riferisco alla concessione internet veloce che è in via di attivazione in tutto il comune, mi riferisco alle attività che con grande sforzo portano avanti il commercio, alla farmacia, alla posta. La posizione di filignano è una posizione ideale per molti perché vicina ai grandi centri ma incastonata ai piedi delle mainarde. Credo che nei prossimi anni saranno molte le persone che faranno una scelta "di salute" e decideranno di andare a vivere in posti come Filignano per godere di tutte queste peculiarità e di aria buona. Bisogna continuare a "pubblicizzare" il nostro bel paese e parallelamente implementare agevolazioni per chi decide di trasferirsi qui. Quest'anno abbiamo avviato una campagna per spingere famiglie con bambini a trasferirsi a filignano per portare qui i bimbi a scuola. La prossima mossa sarà favorire attività di recupero del patrimonio edilizio in abbandono per favorire il sorgere di attività imprenditoriali che lo valorizzino. Continuiamo su questa strada ed i risultati arriveranno. Ti ringrazio per tutto ciò che fai per Filignano perché iniziative come la tua sono linfa per questo paese.".

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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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Eugenio Verrecchia, Founder and Custodian, il Museo per la Memoria Storica del Territorio / The Museum for the Historical Memory of the Territory, Filignano

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

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References, The Walking Library, WILD WAYS, 2022

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A selection of books for residents, from The Museum of Loss and Renewal Library

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Books from The Museum of Loss and Renewal's library were selected by The Museum of Loss and Renewal and The Walking Library, and offered to residents to take on the Group Residency walks that were led by Tracy Mackenna.

Misha Myers and Dee Heddon desribe The Walking Library as a library carried on foot. "However, it not only carries books, but also people. While we have carried our own versions of Dewey Decimal classification, loan card, book pocket and card catalogue, it is not such archival accoutrements and books that make it a library. The books gathered may persist as tangible and lasting objects, but the library comes into being as people walk together and share readings from the books carried in specific places. It is a performance that assumes, but also subverts library technologies, rules and practices."

For the WILD WAYS residency, The Walking Library and The Museum of Loss and Renewal together invited residents to take books from The Museum of Loss and Renewal’s own library for a walk. They were then invited to write on a book card why they chose this book or why they thought it was a good book to take for a walk in Collemacchia. The cards were then inserted into the books for the The Museum of Loss and Renewal library’s future resident browsers to discover.

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

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Guided walk from Collemacchia to Filignano Vecchio (old Filignano), up and through La Pineta, led by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal

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

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Tracy Mackenna 18 Oct 2022 Filignano Vecchio, Wild Ways_edit.MOV

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Guided walk from Collemacchia to Filignano Vecchio (old Filignano), up and through La Pineta, led by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal

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

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Tracy Mackenna 18 Oct 2022 Capanna, Wild Ways

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Guided walk from Collemacchia to Filignano Vecchio (old Filignano), up and through La Pineta, led by Tracy Mackenna, The Museum of Loss and Renewal

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

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Tracy Mackenna 18 Oct 2022 Pineta to Filignano Vecchio, 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