https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping Mon, 14 Aug 2023 12:48:11 +0000 https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site en https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Homepage Sun, 30 Apr 2023 16:54:48 +0000 The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Homepage The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping a project byMarta Pagliuca Pelacani Sharecropping sharecrop | ˈʃɛːkrɒp | verb&nbsp;(sharecrops,&nbsp;sharecropping, sharecropped)&nbsp;[with&nbsp;object]&nbsp; mainly North American&nbsp;(of a tenant farmer) cultivate (farmland) giving a&nbsp;part&nbsp;of&nbsp;each crop as rent:&nbsp;one fifth of farmers sharecrop the land they till&nbsp;| (as&nbsp;noun&nbsp;sharecropping)&nbsp;:&nbsp;the lands were used for exploitative sharecropping. sharecropping is an agricultural agreement by which a family lives on a land they do not own, in a house that doesn’t belong to them, at times for several generations. They work the land and each month they give half (or another share of the harvest) to the landowner in place of a rent.&nbsp; Atlasatlas | ˈatləs&nbsp;|&nbsp;noun&nbsp; 1. a book of maps or charts:&nbsp;I looked in the atlas to see where Naples was&nbsp;| a road atlas.&nbsp; 2. (also atlas vertebra)&nbsp;Anatomy&nbsp;the topmost vertebra of the backbone, articulating with&nbsp;the&nbsp;occipital bone of the skull.&nbsp; 3. (plural atlantes | atˈlantiːz |) Architecture&nbsp;a stone carving of a male figure, used as a column to support the entablature of a Greek or Greek-style building.&nbsp; ORIGIN late 16th&nbsp;century&nbsp;(originally denoting a person who supported a great burden):&nbsp;via Latin&nbsp;from&nbsp;Greek Atlas, the Titan of Greek mythology who supported the heavens and whose picture appeared at the front of early atlases. Atlas&nbsp;|&nbsp;ˈatləs&nbsp;|&nbsp;Greek Mythology&nbsp;one of the Titans,&nbsp;who&nbsp;was punished for his part in their revolt against Zeus by being&nbsp;made&nbsp;to&nbsp;support the heavens. He became identified with the Atlas Mountains. We make atlases because we feel lost. This being lost feels to us like the greatest burden. We believe we must bear it&nbsp; alone. In truth, we feel lost precisely because we feel alone. We don’t know the path and we do not trust our feet like they had thoughts, or our hands like they could make home.&nbsp; How to learn that which is unseen and unheard? How to hold the knowledge that is being passed on to us, if we don’t know how it looks like or where it came from? While preparing this installation, my mother tells me about ‘the art of the hands’.&nbsp;This ability to make things with my hands, which I did not know I had, I have inherited from her; but without passage. For a long time, it slipped into a crack between us. Now it resurfaces, years later. How to share the feeling of things that are done through the art of the hands? The original post: &nbsp; During a visit to my grandmother and great uncle’s tombs, my great aunt Maria instructs me: we must know how to love. My mother answers her in Abruzzese dialect:&nbsp;‘E dà mó che la capit kess’ / E’ da tanto che lo ha capito (IT) / She has known it a long time (ENG).&nbsp; To know how to love, I believe we must listen. To listen, we must face someone who can speak. How to make others feel like they can speak to me? The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping is an experiment in crafting instruments for the intergenerational sharing of knowledge and memory. Meaning: for active listening.&nbsp;Through its textures and symbols, it encourages multiple generations to tune into ancient rhythms and myths tied to the cultivation of land, serving as a map for both active wanderings and multimedia listenings. By clicking on one of the designs, you will be redirected to a page with additional information and an English translation of the circles. <img width="2766" height="4149" width_o="2766" height_o="4149" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/acd46484269baa3868754cb84362146f3d035de760d8fcf02bfd1ddea4a4704d/Cosmoscrop.png" data-mid="177194792" border="0" alt="Cosmo" data-caption="Cosmo" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/acd46484269baa3868754cb84362146f3d035de760d8fcf02bfd1ddea4a4704d/Cosmoscrop.png" /> <img width="2769" height="4150" width_o="2769" height_o="4150" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f63fcb62d4af5f22fafd07186e145803cbecf9ed3bbf9a91b3181a3ee37384c1/OLIVE.png" data-mid="177194543" border="0" alt="Olivo" data-caption="Olivo" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f63fcb62d4af5f22fafd07186e145803cbecf9ed3bbf9a91b3181a3ee37384c1/OLIVE.png" /> <img width="2769" height="4150" width_o="2769" height_o="4150" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3b8aedee5e718cfea3210feebeef1cdcae1888fef1ac5d27ad934faf62670c55/GRANO.png" data-mid="177194542" border="0" alt="Grano" data-caption="Grano" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3b8aedee5e718cfea3210feebeef1cdcae1888fef1ac5d27ad934faf62670c55/GRANO.png" /> <img width="2769" height="4150" width_o="2769" height_o="4150" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/40f37d60ab7e15fb54055b34496e877654f133d0501a07fd70693a0fd458931d/UVA.png" data-mid="177194544" border="0" alt="Uva" data-caption="Uva" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/40f37d60ab7e15fb54055b34496e877654f133d0501a07fd70693a0fd458931d/UVA.png" /> ComplimentiThe activation ‘Complimenti’, taking place in de Appel (Amsterdam, NL) between 18h and 20h on June 9th is such an attempt. Standing in the The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping my mother and I hand out seven hundred cookies made over the past week in order to celebrate the evening. Following a costume that celebrates important rites of passage in Abruzzo, we invite guests to our table, asking them to accept our gifts. Sharing stories together, visitors are welcomed into Abruzzese culture and the world of its kitchens. The inspiration for this activation is owed to Ms Annina from Casabordino, whose work I found on a Facebook group for people from Abruzzo living in other Italian cities or abroad. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e6b20b543e3b5405086b7417306a1f0184eaf20bbc065be628804a947fa138ba/complimenti.jpg" data-mid="208659158" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e6b20b543e3b5405086b7417306a1f0184eaf20bbc065be628804a947fa138ba/complimenti.jpg" /> For the 50th marriage anniversary of the in-laws of her niece, Annina had prepared 35 kg of ‘complimenti’ or complimentary cookies. These assorted cookies, whose various recipes change according to the maker’s taste as well as the season, are usually given to guests in Abruzzo after a reception. They come in golden trays known as ‘guantiere’ so that they may be offered and then easily packaged - it is in fact rare that after an Abruzzese reception guests may be able to eat dessert on the spot. The ‘guantiere’ are thus made as a take home gift from the party. To celebrate the closing of our two years journey in the Artistic Research Masters’ programme at the University of Amsterdam, my mother and I have followed the steps of Ms Annina.Our hope, with this ‘labour of love’ is to honor the tradition of complimenti in Abruzzo. It is this ability to remember and learn while we are baking that my mother means when she says ‘arte delle mani’ - the art of the hands. ︎ Index https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Cosmo Sun, 30 Apr 2023 16:54:46 +0000 The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Cosmo English <img width="842" height="596" width_o="842" height_o="596" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a43eaedac9fb6ae23db99bf98682dc3bd69bb205e9132e421b16c659cca948c7/StudioHeartB-01-Artboard-1.png" data-mid="187891444" border="0" data-scale="18" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/842/i/a43eaedac9fb6ae23db99bf98682dc3bd69bb205e9132e421b16c659cca948c7/StudioHeartB-01-Artboard-1.png" /> Italiano https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/COSMO-1 Mon, 14 Aug 2023 12:48:11 +0000 The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/COSMO-1 01Cosmo COSMO is a visual representation of the practices and knowledges constituitive of the discourse of a peasant cosmology.&nbsp; You can click on the blue design to enlarge the image and get a better sense of the following explanation.&nbsp; Beginning with the outer circle, at the height of the ears of wheat, we see listed the month of the year: September, October, November, December, and so on. In the following circle, instead are the processes of wheat harvest that correspond to these months, for a detailed translation see: GRANO. After the cycle of wheat, the diagram becomes narrower and turns towards the harvest of grapes for wine making see:&nbsp;UVA. The last crop represented in this diagram, before the central figure of the Rosone di Santa Maria di Collemaggio (Aquila, IT) are olive trees. For a detailed breakdown of olive oil’s production throughout the year see: OLIVO. The branches you see in correspondance of the months of November and December are symbols of Abruzzo’s fire rituals, proper of the winter months. Particularly important here are the fires lit on St Anthony the Abbot’s day (January 17th), among which the spectacular show held every year in Fara Filorum Petri (Chieti, IT) is worth a watch. Here a video combining recent footage with archival material: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4yQoQKoDYY&amp;ab_channel=radarmanv60 The summer and spring instead revolve around rituals dedicated to water. The traditional image of a ‘conca’ placed here in correspondence of the month of June points to the day of St John (24 June). Celebrated all over Italy, in Abruzzo this festivity is accompanied by a ritual, which you are welcome to honour if you like:&nbsp; On the night of June 23rd go otuside, forage for herbs. You may want to find: sage, small flowers, rosemary, all aromatic plants growing near you, like elder, or st john’s wort. Place these in a bowl on your windowsill and let the magic of San Giovanni’s protection seep into it. On the morning of the 24th, strain the flowers and purify yourself with the water. You may want to wash your face with it and offer some to a loved one.&nbsp; Footage of the ritual as discussed, in Pescara (IT), by anthropologist Adriana Gandolfi and the A.S.T.R.A association:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLm9q5HcIqQ&amp;ab_channel=TVSEI <img width="2766" height="4149" width_o="2766" height_o="4149" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/baacdec67ad0c7b6064fc11aefa030c1acaaf026d318b6e5a4c251b5fdc5613f/Cosmoscrop.png" data-mid="187891171" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/baacdec67ad0c7b6064fc11aefa030c1acaaf026d318b6e5a4c251b5fdc5613f/Cosmoscrop.png" /> “‘For twenty years I knew the monotony of the earth, the rain, the wind, the snow, the saints’ days, the food, the worries, the troubles and the poverty; the everlasting poverty, handed down by fathers who inherited it from grandfathers, in the face of which honest toil had never been of any use. The harshest injustices were of such long standing that they had acquired the naturalness of the rain, the wind and the snow. The life of men, of the beasts of the field and of the earth itself seemed enclosed in an immovable ring, held in the vice-like grip of the mountains and the changes of the season, welded into an unchanging natural cycle as in a kind of everlasting prison. First came the sowing, the the spraying, then the reaping, the the gathering of the grapes. And then? The same thing over again. Sowing, hoeing, pruning, spraying, reaping, the gathering of the grapes. It was always the same song, always the same refrain. Years passed, years mounted up, the young grew old, the old died, and sowing, hoeing, spraing, reaping and gathering the grapes went on.’ From Ignazio Silone, Fontamara, (1933). Silone has been one of Abruzzo’s most important and controversial writers. His descriptions of peasant life, and the miserable conditions of Abruzzese peasants during the 20th century, represent today vital sources. Born in a marginal village of the Fucino region in Abruzzo, Silone lived as a peasant for most of his youth, an experience to which his writing is inspired. Later in his life, he betrayed his origins, and brother, by collaborating with the Fascist regime and providing information on the resistance movements to which his brother belonged in an attempt to save his life. Haunted by this regret, he will produce several written works aimed at restoring the memory of peasant resistance against fascisms which he had contributed to erase.&nbsp; https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Grano Sun, 30 Apr 2023 16:54:47 +0000 The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Grano 04GranoTranslation of Design:September - Ploughing and SowingOctober - Ploughing and SowingNovember to April - Digging, Hoeing, Elimination of Weeds, and the Keeping of Fallow Land.May to July - HarvestingJuly to August - Threshing Menu della Finitora&nbsp;cooked by my grandmother for the 20 people who helped harvest the weath every June.&nbsp; Breakfast: rimpizze* with wine and latte [9h]&nbsp; *soft brioche with anise Lunch: Spaghetti alla Chitarra with chicken innards sauce; Roasted Chicken with Potatoes; Salad [14h] My grandmother would usually cook two chickens for twenty people. They would raise the chickens so they were big, but she still had to split them sometimes into forty pieces. Once, a legendary time, my grandmother made 25 pieces out of a single chicken. <img width="5545" height="8299" width_o="5545" height_o="8299" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cc7c623509017160fb2eda6590cc23eed94c1bdbb7876c0cc5ecacd396e1177f/GRANO-PRINT.png" data-mid="181554217" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cc7c623509017160fb2eda6590cc23eed94c1bdbb7876c0cc5ecacd396e1177f/GRANO-PRINT.png" /> https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Uva Sun, 30 Apr 2023 16:54:47 +0000 The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Uva 03 Uva Translation of Design:August to September - DiggingOctober - Grape HarvestNovember to January - ManuringFebruary to March - PruningMarch to April - Spading May to July - Irrigation Merenda (Snack) Grape would be harvested with a team of just four or five people from outside the family.&nbsp; After the vendemmia - grape harvest - and the pressing of the grapes, you would eat simply biscuits with grape juice.&nbsp;<img width="5545" height="8300" width_o="5545" height_o="8300" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/652b34c142785920a60f2ce30ad3e71fb9a9fff2bc6001abea69d8816a02fc72/UVA-PRINT.png" data-mid="181554255" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/652b34c142785920a60f2ce30ad3e71fb9a9fff2bc6001abea69d8816a02fc72/UVA-PRINT.png" /> https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Olivo Sun, 30 Apr 2023 17:04:58 +0000 The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Olivo 03 Olivo Translation of the Design:September to October - Cleaning of Plot November to December - Olive HarvestJanuary to February - ManuringMarch to April - PruningApril to September - Irrigation Menu of the New Oil&nbsp;served by grandmother to those who helped after the oil was collected from the local frantoio (olive press) Starter: Bruschette and scrippelle* cooked on the fire *crepes made of water, flour and ‘new’ olive oil - just pressed.&nbsp; Lunch: Sauce with pig’s cuts under salt and polenta with sauce.&nbsp; Dessert: Chestnuts<img width="5545" height="8299" width_o="5545" height_o="8299" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/53bf8c719eb3de02f581c542b9ed7df10f88bb7d47c56773ce513fcdc12c1e8e/OLIVE-PRINT.png" data-mid="181554325" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/53bf8c719eb3de02f581c542b9ed7df10f88bb7d47c56773ce513fcdc12c1e8e/OLIVE-PRINT.png" /> https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/About Sun, 30 Apr 2023 16:54:48 +0000 The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/About (About)Marta Pagliuca Pelacani ︎ Index Marta Pagliuca Pelacani is a storyteller, researcher and editor from Pescara (Abruzzo, IT) based in Amsterdam, NL.&nbsp; <img width="2200" height="1651" width_o="2200" height_o="1651" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b2aa6558dd57ccb6e77bcc1cb1d61217ec4e84282c46543bcba77bcb913846a0/malken.jpg" data-mid="177194339" border="0" data-scale="100" alt="Dr. Judith Spencely in the Field" data-caption="Dr. Judith Spencely in the Field" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b2aa6558dd57ccb6e77bcc1cb1d61217ec4e84282c46543bcba77bcb913846a0/malken.jpg" /> Her research investigates issues surrounding memory and illiteracy, looking at the ways in which intergenerational memory is transmitted within communities that lack written records and at times oral histories. Observing how separation and alienation affected her family’s memory of sharecropping history, she experiments with ways to restablish ancient connections by playing with stories and myth. Working closely with concepts such as ‘archival fiction’ and ‘archival imagination’, her artistic research uses storytelling to critically rework opaqueness into archives while weaving textures of transparency in the present to convey memories and help sharecropping’s heritage survive.&nbsp;A first generation descendant of Southern Italian sharecroppers, she is always eager to meet folks with similar histories. Please get in touch. https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Contact Mon, 05 Jun 2023 21:55:04 +0000 The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Contact (Contact) ︎ Index <img width="842" height="596" width_o="842" height_o="596" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0f9bc485a1a6ee745baadc01aa0e88b10eaec5ec588c6c3cf1f22a6719fa0619/StudioHeartB-01-Artboard-1.png" data-mid="181554487" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/842/i/0f9bc485a1a6ee745baadc01aa0e88b10eaec5ec588c6c3cf1f22a6719fa0619/StudioHeartB-01-Artboard-1.png" /> Marta Pagliuca Pelacanimarta[a]studioimaginalis.com@idasaai Studio Imaginalis Derde Kostverlorenkade no.34, Amsterdam NL https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Page-Nav Sun, 30 Apr 2023 16:54:47 +0000 The Magical Atlas of Italian Sharecropping https://themagicalatlas.cargo.site/Page-Nav ︎ Index &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Next Project ︎