Back before the scars in social veneer began to surface, lauded by some typically incoherent larger than life,... larger even than death Characateurs, we were heading for a return visit to the blessed Mon Viso Italian Alps, as we did in August 2019, to the sacred mountain lakes up there where wood stoves perfume the summer in the shade of the valleys and the people go about the business of living with dignity and determination.
Alighting in Genoa February 2020 was not a good idea, the irony of being attracted to a city that boasts its populations longevity, and attributes this "in-the-pink longevity" to steep hill walking, grapes, garlic, olive oil and countless other factors which are simple and make light work of scientific-advancement, was a possible man-trap to be set by the authors of covid-19 for yours truly.
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| Cinque Terre - Genoa 2020 |
Then along came Benjamin, a Scenographer telling his story by design, through drawing and a complex infusion of the digital signal and the constructors hammer, conducting us through a symphonic composition of herbs, olive oil, rustic infusions and Franco Battiato Niente è come sembre from his home in Firenze to the French Alps through the placing of the Object high up in the mountains on the ski slopes of Val Thorens. Adventures!
Now embarking on a journey monitoring the peaks, avalanches, clouds of information and landslides of new ideas in the lecture theatres and the academic rock-pools of northern England, like so many of my colleagues waiting for summer in the mountains, when the retreating snow reveals the mysteries of consciousness, creating a Tabula Rasa for the here and now and so his story rests, locked between the strategic palimpsest and polished substance of Aether, perhaps his stone tells us more from existing rock which the 19th century inhabitants of the mountains, lived off, and in the landscape. With the rising increase in the population, many mountain people learned new trades to survive. foundry-chimney sweeps, glaziers, boiler makers, knife grinders travelling far from home to sell their skills. The chimneysweeps of Orco Valley and Val di Rhêmes, came down towards the small towns in the lowlands in small groups, who had to do the hardest and most thankless part of the job: cleaning the chimney flues. There is a visitors' centre dedicated to this traditional trade in the park at Locana.
Copper - Venus.
There is evidence of medieval copper extraction in the Orco and Soana valleys. Copper was extracted from the mines present in the area, melted and processed first at the forge, and then refined, tinned and sold as metallurgical stock for the craftsmen in the workshops. The copper works have left their mark on the landscape, with the mines and the paths that lead to them, the water supplies, the forges, the workshops and the itinerant locksmiths and tinsmiths.
This tradition is now being preserved with a project by the Ecological Museum of the Orco and Soana valleys, which includes the recently restructured and refurnished copper forge at Ronco. Perhaps more importantly , is the Copper School in Alpette, where the experience of hand-crafting copper objects is passed on.
Iron or mines? at Cogne
In Valle di Cogne the presence of lode veins of iron-ore played an important part on life in the local community. Initially the exploiting of the mine was open, anybody could extract the mineral, build a forge and cut down trees to burn. At the beginning of the 19th century the metallurgical processes were modernized within the organization of the mine, with the forming a co-operative, which was superseded by "Società Nazionale Cogne", thereby reaching a high level of productivity until, like everywhere else we await news of a revival.
Copper - Venus.
There is evidence of medieval copper extraction in the Orco and Soana valleys. Copper was extracted from the mines present in the area, melted and processed first at the forge, and then refined, tinned and sold as metallurgical stock for the craftsmen in the workshops. The copper works have left their mark on the landscape, with the mines and the paths that lead to them, the water supplies, the forges, the workshops and the itinerant locksmiths and tinsmiths.
This tradition is now being preserved with a project by the Ecological Museum of the Orco and Soana valleys, which includes the recently restructured and refurnished copper forge at Ronco. Perhaps more importantly , is the Copper School in Alpette, where the experience of hand-crafting copper objects is passed on.
Iron or mines? at Cogne
In Valle di Cogne the presence of lode veins of iron-ore played an important part on life in the local community. Initially the exploiting of the mine was open, anybody could extract the mineral, build a forge and cut down trees to burn. At the beginning of the 19th century the metallurgical processes were modernized within the organization of the mine, with the forming a co-operative, which was superseded by "Società Nazionale Cogne", thereby reaching a high level of productivity until, like everywhere else we await news of a revival.
