Nature and Man’s Identity

Cansano, Campo di Giove, Pacentro (AQ), a Research targeted to the establishment of a Digital Museum, a Project by the Agenzie di Promozione Culturale in Sulmona and L’Aquila – Regione Abruzzo, the Comunità Montana Peligna, the Archivio di Stato in Sulmona and with the co-operation of the above municipalities.

“A theme research project on geographical areas” aimed at the study and promotion of Cultural and Environmental treasures, and especially of the landscape modified by men, in its many, varied and little known facets.

“Hi everybody, my name is Joe (Giuseppe) and I represent the 3rd generation of Italian immigrants to the States…”
On a giant screen placed in the central squares in Pacentro, Campo di Giove and Cansano, through an internet connection a real-time message appears, an E-mail coming from somewhere in the United States, or Canada, Australia, or elsewhere. Asking for news, searching relatives, or for an image of a small corner of the village that is no more. Next to him, writing on a keyboard in one of the many associations of Abruzzese abroad, maybe his father, or the grandfather who wrote a similar letter 80 years before including the savings to be sent to the family, a letter that would take 40 days on the ship to cross the Atlantic and reach the village post office.

From the village squares through this “E-mail memorial” replies will come from the mayors, the officials, the relatives, the public. This “flash-forward” is just to give an idea of a complex project that will take form in the “Piazza” of the villages, organized by the Comunità Montana Peligna, the Agenzie di Promozione Culturale in Sulmona and L’Aquila, the Abruzzo Region Administration and the three Municipal Administrations of Western Maiella, after the research “Nature and Man’s Identity” on the landscapes and cultural treasures of Pacentro, Cansano and Campo di Giove is completed, and ready to be shown as itinerant exhibition.

This is the fourth part of the theme research in the Peligna Valley, following the “Ancestors’ Path” about the Aterno valley, “The landscape of myths” on the Sagittario valley and “Men and the Mountain” on the Gizio valley inaugurated last summer in Pettorano, with the presence of a representation of emigrants. Who knows what story will ever be told by that soil from the village earth, that someone quickly collected into a bag, trying not to be noticed.

Versione Italiana