When walking in nature, stopping is part of the journey: taking time, fully living the cycles of day and night, observing stars and dawns.
Historically, pathways of development have evolved in two main contexts: in urban centres and in small towns in the country. On one hand, there is the city as the heart of activity and the place where living becomes functional and comfortable. On the other, small towns in the country are often marginal spaces that have been depleted of their previous social function, where the struggles of travelling and social exchange nevertheless correspond to direct and exclusive access to the resources of the natural territory. Enjoying a stretch of beach, a “place in the sun”, forests, rivers or mountains – and starry night skies – in a scenic landscape that is not subject to uncontrolled exploitation are privileges that often make the renunciation of forms of innovation and cultural production more acceptable. It’s as if culture and nature have always been dichotomies and alternatives, as if forms of thought and access to humanised spaces could never coexist. Yet nature, observing it, being immersed in it and overwhelmed by it, has always been life-blood for art: one need only think of Gauguin in Polynesia, of Byron and the Gulf of Poets in Liguria, or of Saldago’s photography.
The challenge is to discover a new way of living nature and this territory, one that evokes nomadic paths more than non-migratory lodging, through an overnight stay in the jazzi.
