2020-01-15

2020-01-15

Lorenzo

Once upon a time, Lorenzo was the guy running the phone shop close to the public library in Faenza - my hometown - which is 40km away from Tredozio. Everyone in town bumped into his shop at least once, especially when we were still used to revealing the magic numbers by scratching that raw, grey coating on the bottom of phone top-up cards. I already knew Lorenzo, since I’ve been used to going in his shop, sometimes holding on by arguing about the nearby Apennines, of which he’s a local expert. I think he was already genuinely, yet subtly promoting Tredozio and its surroundings. He was particularly used to kindly help clumsy elders, never breaking down the smile upon his face - almost every day, from early in the morning to late noon. I have the feeling that he must learn a lot in the shop, how to listen to any people complain or doubt while trying to help, concretely. Because 5G must work everywhere, and anywhere, and possibly without paying too much. Patience is quite a thing nowadays. Lorenzo is been also involved since 2019 as vice-major for Tredozio, one of the reasons why he eventually decided to quit the job at the shop, at one point. Even considering the 90 € monthly salaries to run his position as Vice-major, he preferred to stay closer to Tredozio and its community. Something intimate drove Lorenzo to this choice; something that has not to do with politics as I was used to. I would call it a politics of listening, which 16 nowadays is as rare as patience is. With this image of Lorenzo, and with a yet vague purpose of establishing a connection with this village, I wanted to invite him for a friendly discussion concerning Tredozio, rural areas, and the pleasures and the hardships of living there. As expected, our conversation ended up with new, wider questions. What does it mean to detach from urban commodities, habits and behaviours? Could this detachment represent an opportunity to re-think ways of living? How could we build a living and creative environment as a way to enable temporary living forms? With these questions in mind and the warm support from Lorenzo, I started my path to the conceptualisation of possible, temporary living forms and environments for Tredozio, and me. On one side, I had to get into the territory, understand the local specificities and inherit the current social and cultural conditions. On the other side, I had to relate to this new environment as a hypothetical future inhabitant, projecting my habits, aspirations and practices into a rural, decentralised dimension.