Frana Futura
Future Avalanche
Liguria is an impervious region, caught between the mountains and the sea. A network of deep valleys carved by streams flowing onto rocky coasts. Steep slopes collapse and wash out into the water. The Avalanche has always permeated this territory; it is its natural geological - and ontological - conformation.
Those who live here tenaciously oppose the slipping away of the soil, working in a way that takes the form of care, but also of forcing the balance. Two forces that meet and shape each other: one pulling down, the other clinging and trying to resist.
Terracing after terracing, stone after stone, the landscape becomes an immense deposit of fatigue: human fatigue, animal fatigue, the fatigue of the roots that dig up the arid earth and break the walls, or hold them together; the fatigue of the stone, crushed between meanders and formations destined for infinite reshuffling.
This is the Avalanche: not the unforeseen catastrophe, but the continuous reshuffling of the earth. A process that comes from the darkness of deep time and slides towards new geographies. A mystery that stratifies and crumbles through the ages. A perpetual transformation that operates on time scales interdicted to us, like those of lithogenesi
1. Once, in place of Liguria, there was a vast sea: the Ligurian Ocean. From the compression of the ocean floor by tectonic forces, the variety of rocks that characterise the region emerged.
One of these, in particular, may be the interface between us and the elusive course of the Avalanche: slate. Originating from the muds and sands of underwater landslides subjected to a slow cementing process, it is traditionally used for the construction of terraces, houses, roofs and crêuze.
Slate has been extracted from the belly of the mountain since time immemorial: first with sledgehammers and chisels, then with motors and toothed blades. In the darkness of the underground, quarrymen have carved cathedrals of stone from the damp walls and muddy floor. An extraction that follows the course of the lode, crossing geological eras and bringing to light what the inexorable Avalanche has completely covered.
2. But it is on the surface that we perceive the Avalanche most clearly, where it makes an event. In order to hold back the crumbling earth, we often resort to instant fix solutions such as rockfall nets. These weaves protect us from the exuberance of the rock. An enclosure to preserve the mountain intact. An agile and efficient technique that promises to freeze the Avalanche in mid-air.
Not to intercept its thrust. Not to channel its trajectory. To immobilise it, literally. A securing that consolidates unstable terrains, but at the same time makes them inaccessible. It petrifies them, that is, makes them nothing but stone. Where the nets are placed, hardly anyone can pass through anymore. Perhaps only a few wild goats, with their measured steps, indifferent to the force of gravity. Perhaps a few cars on the road below, and little more.
3. Historically, the first tool for supporting slopes and making them habitable were dry stone walls, which were much more expensive than nets, both in economic terms and in terms of time. Those who know Liguria do not forget that every slope was modelled with hard work. The Ligurians had to carve out their vertical plains by creating narrow strips of cultivable land hanging from the sides of the mountains. The terraces, supported by kilometres of dry stone walls, were for centuries the only way to continue to inhabit the region and to draw sustenance from it.
But industrialisation and modern agriculture have led to a progressive transformation of society and the local economy, and consequently also to the abandonment of the land. The walls, which only survive if cared for, have begun to crumble and the terracing to collapse. In a place with such a fragile balance, it is only possible to live by respecting the weight of each stone. There is a need for skilful water regulation, for patient hands to put fallen stones back in place, for someone who knows where to run roads without weakening the slopes. A wall is not just the sum of its stones.
4. Depopulation and the consequent abandonment of inland areas and less accessible hamlets have rapidly given way to intricate and thorny vegetation: arborescent ivy, brambles, vitalba. A luxuriance that clings to the stones, insinuates itself into all the interstices and regains the space previously occupied by vines, olive trees and wheat. It is the force of the Avalanche that begins to flow again, the mountain that lives and covers its slopes with a thick blanket of woodland.
Abandonment also brings with it a cultural avalanche, made up of lost traditions along mule tracks that no longer exist, ruins that turn back into stone. In an attempt to rediscover a more conscious way of living, a number of associations are endeavouring to resurface ancient paths, forgotten bridges, the canals that once carried water to the mills, the hollow stones that supported the chestnut poles of the vineyards. Testimonies that recall a tiring past, with which it is difficult to come to terms and often easier to forget. Yet, from the great struggle for survival emerges clear knowledge of the land, a precious and necessary awareness for living with the Avalanche.
The Avalanche is a symbol of transformation and renewal, but it is also transformation and renewal in the strict sense. Living with it means being willing to change and being able to interact with what surrounds us. A stratification of life, time and matter of which we are also a part. The Avalanche is future because it is never still. It is future because it is trajectory. Making the Future Avalanche means participating in the reshuffling of the earth, drawing on the materials of ancient landslides and reconfiguring them for those yet to come. It means paying attention to the temporal dimension of our actions, to the way they propagate in space and time, on different scales. A complex system of balances rooted in distant times, where everything is connected to something, but not everything is connected to everything. It is impossible to perceive it in all its layers: the landscape contains a mystery that we do not have the power to unravel. Recognising this condition means accepting the Avalanche as a person: giving it a space in our imagination, our culture and our politics. Frana Futura is an attempt to transform the meaning of Avalanche: from an unforeseen event, catastrophe and disaster, to a condition of listening, care and balance.
The company F.lli Demartini owns three quarries located in the Orero quarrying area in Val Fontanabuona.
Campra Rocciatori is a Piedmontese company that has been involved in the securing and consolidation of unstable slopes for more than twenty years.
Luca Drovandi is a masonry craftsman working in the La Spezia area. A member of ITLA (International Terraced Landscapes Alliance), he is also involved in training in the art of dry-stonework.
Pietre Parlanti is a non-profit organisation based in Lavagna. Thanks to a network of volunteers, they are rediscovering the historical heritage on Monte Capenardo and Monte San Giacomo.