In its seedling stage, Parco Comune dei Frutti Minori (The Common Orchard) is a collaboration between Free Home University and Casa delle Agriculture ‘Tullia e Gino’ in Castiglione, based on an idea by the artist Luigi Coppola. Activated by the local community in collaboration with artists, thinkers, and radical farmers, The Common Orchard celebrates an awareness of the land, revisits rural traditions, and creates new spaces for experimentation.
The orchard aims to restore the dignity of abandoned public land in the rural areas of Castiglione d’ Otranto in Salento. The areas, once destined to be waste landfills, are now being reclaimed for common use. From April 11 to 21, 2014, the land will be planted with some of Salento’s heritage fruit trees—jujube, cornula, mountain ash, mulberry, and other native species—to be protected and enjoyed by all. In addition to being an expanding educational garden that hosts workshops and seminars on agricultural and environmental issues, the orchard is also a Viviterium, and a place of memory. Anyone who participates in its construction can adopt a tree symbolically dedicating it to a loved one, living or dead, or to a notable figure in the struggle for environmental, cultural, and labor rights. More…
Rural areas are places of relationships between people and nature. They are opportunities for exchange of knowledge between generations. No longer marginal abandoned areas, they can become focal points which strengthen the bonds of community, social development, and sustainable forms of economy. The Common Orchard is supported in part by Park Otranto—Santa Maria di Leuca, the City of Andrano, and made possible thanks to the activation of many local associations and citizens, to Istituto Agrario ‘Presta-Columella’ in Lecce, and Lecce 2019 European Capital Culture.
For more information, contact Luigi Coppola at parcofruttiminori@gmail.com or visit freehomeuniversity.org.
From the Free Home University Blog:
Subito, now, I understand why my high school Latin teacher had us converse in that language. It was a portal to another world and other communities.
“Community” is a word derived from the Latin “cum” meaning “with” and “munio, munire…” meaning “to fortify, defend, protect”. So an original community was a group gathering, one with the other, to have safety in numbers.
Castiglione, where Free Home University is convening this week, is a small community—one of three, all located within about five kilometers of each other, that compose the local governing unit, the Commune of Andrano.
Castiglione is the kind of community that doesn’t need signs on its grocery stores, florist, community centre and park. Everyone knows where they are. And the church with its bell tower is on the high side of the main square and visible from much of the community.
But times are changing. The primary school, located at the main crossroads, has a sign on it identifying it as such. The pharmacy has a green neon sign (the only neon sign here) and numerous metal signs throughout the village indicating how to access it from any direction on the maze of narrow one-way streets. The two trattoria in Castiglione, located near the main square, have signs identifying themselves to passers-by.
Someone thought the main square should have a clock tower. Now there is a plain, nondescript, block building with a clock tower on a corner, which obstructs the formerly gracious entrance to the main square and the view of a side of a lovely old chapel facing the church across the square. To no one’s surprise, the clock tower’s two dials show different times, both wrong.
This (Easter Saturday) early morning’s processional from the church and down the hill was small and earnest, with singing amplified by a truck’s loudspeaker. The procession should have occurred last night, but it was raining.
Sixty years ago, the procession would probably have included almost everyone in the village. At that time, the local priest would have been included (or would have included himself) in a community’s plans to institute a Fruit Orchard Common. Not now. Communities are changing.
What will define tomorrow’s communities? What challenges will convene future communities? How can “artistic thinking” (the way artists view and question the world) help shape healthier communities? How intentional will tomorrow’s communities become? How can Free Home University contribute to the creation or re-imagining of new communities?
– Board Member Yeti Agnew
Image: design by Mauro Bubbico and the students of the ‘ISIA Urbino, Master of Science in Communication, Design and Publishing: Grace Dammacco, David Georgetta, Valerio Nicoletti, Lucia Sgrafetto.
Il parco comune dei frutti minori nasce dal desiderio di restituire luoghi alla bellezza, alla memoria e al futuro, di ripensare la tradizione rurale, di creare spazi di sperimentazione e riflessione, con la consapevolezza del valore della terra, del lavoro e del vivere insieme.
E’ un progetto di rigenerazione di terreni pubblici nelle aree rurali di Castiglione d’Otranto, attivato dalla comunità locale in collaborazione con artisti, pensatori e agricoltori radicali, al fine di ridare dignità ad aree pubbliche abbandonate e meta di discariche di rifiuti e materiali inerti, spesso dannosi alla salute, per convertirle in bene comune.
Il parco nasce su terreni bonificati da cui sono stati rimossi i rifiuti, per lasciare spazio al patrimonio frutticolo salentino: le molteplici varietà di fichi, il giuggiolo, la cornula, il sorbo, i gelsi e tanti altre specie autoctone da proteggere e gustare. More…
Oltre ad essere giardino didattico in continua espansione, dove ospitare laboratori e seminari sulle questioni agricole e ambientali, il parco è anche viviterium, luogo della memoria e dello spirito. Chi partecipa alla sua costruzione, adotta simbolicamente un albero dedicandolo ad una persona cara, viva o morta, o ad una figura distintasi nella lotta ambientale, culturale e per i diritti del lavoro.
Le aree rurali sono luoghi di relazione fra le persone e con la natura, occasioni di scambio di conoscenze tra generazioni e saperi diversi; non piu’ zone marginali e abbandonate, ma territori centrali in cui esercitare e rafforzare i vincoli di comunità, lo sviluppo sociale e forme di economia sostenibili. Il parco comune dei frutti minori e’ un percorso insieme di recupero della tradizione e rinascita futura che si innesta sulle pratiche da tempo attivate nell’area di Castiglione per l’utilizzo delle terre incolte, pubbliche o private, oggi coltivate in modo naturale, con varietà antiche di cereali e in via sperimentale con la canapa come coltura di rotazione.
Info: parcofruttiminori@gmail.com
Il parco comune dei frutti minori e’ una collaborazione tra Casa delle Agriculture ‘Tullia e Gino’ di Castiglione e Free Home University, su un’idea dell’artista Luigi Coppola.
Sostenuto dal Parco Otranto – Santa Maria di Leuca, dal Comune di Andrano e Fondazione Musagetes (Canada), e’ reso possibile grazie all’attivazione di tante associazioni locali e di cittadini, dell’Istituto Agrario ‘Presta -Columella’ di Lecce e incontra il placito di Lecce 2019, Candidata Capitale Europea della Cultura.
Foto: prima bozza grafica fatta dal grande Mauro Bubbico e gli studenti dell’ Isia Urbino, Magistrale in comunicazione, design ed editoria: Grazia Dammacco, Davide Giorgetta, Valerio Nicoletti, Lucia Sgrafetto.