DormitioVirginis/Wheath:seeds,cults ,cultures ,agricolture (journey trough Irpinia).
http://www.vimeo.com/17000830
Concept:it is an ongoing project based in Irpinia, a mountainous area in the province of Avellino, between the southern italian regions of Campania, Basilicata and Puglia. It is a transition area connecting , east and west coast.The route of wheat passes through this region, that has been for centuries an area of extensive cultivation. During the 20th century a massive process of immigration has depleted this area of its inhabitants , also in this period Irpinia has been devastate three times by earthquakes:in 1930 ,1962 and  most recently in 1980, this last catastrophe is known as the Irpinia’s earthquake. 

The Madonna Assunta worship, also known as Dormitio virginis. is expressed in this area ,through several religious fairs, and, festivals, in the period of the late Summer (august 15th). Her initiatory death,, which prepares for a new life, is the death of the the nature which ,deprived of vital forces, withdraws into itself.
As this cult is linked to the seasonal cycle, it is  connected to the worship of the Two Goddess Demeter and Persephon,,as recounted in the Homeric Hymns (c. 650 B.C ).Demeter was the goddess of agriculture and of fertility

The objectives of the project DormitioVirginis/Wheath: seeds ,culture,cults,agriculture (journey through irpinia) are the making of a video structured in several episodes, and the construction of a landscape size statue of a lying down female. This sculpture, made of earth to be sown with cereals, is supposed to follow the whole natural cycle up to the harvest.Working simultaneously on the statue and the video through workshops  and performances, the project engages artists and inhabitants in several villages of the area.This work aims to investigate the process of reconstruction, re-foundation and new civilization in Irpinia ,from the point of view of the lost rural identity  and of contemporary culture of  wheat . The first part of the video, "episode 00", is the prologues. It has been presented in an informal preview at  INTERFERENZE rurality 2.0 new arts festivals 23/07/20010 ,Bisaccia (av) , Italy.

Alessandra Cianelli © 2007-2010

http://www.interferenze.org

   

 CRAI deriva/cairano www.de-riva.net

http://www.vimeo.com/17000830

Genre: experimental ,art project ,partecipating cinema,performance,web;

I go seeking fragments of lost identities,

and I associate them to the places where they have been found ,which are as well places of abandon and loss:  history, memory, ,lost,found,residual,third landscape,village ,rural ,identity,smocks sewing, fabric, ,map, psychogeography.

De-riva is a  site specific project disposal :it explores places where the anthropization has passed like a sudden and passing cataclysm, or where human presence  have been erased by cataclysm (in this case heartquakes, emigration ).

The shoe is a subject-pretext as it is the most powerful among the catalyzers  of such identities coming from far away in time and space , waiting for being re-collected and re-vealed. Every “collection” ofshoes is a documentary which narrates the places, different every time, and the situation of the “discovery”. Deriva , shoes ,abandoned ,lost,found,residual,third landscape,village ,rural ,identity,smocks sewing, fabric, ,map, psychogeography,documentare, history, memory-

http://vimeo.com/17917734
Documentario immaginario sull’antica industria della neve e del ghiaccio nella piana orientale di Napoli.
Imaginary documentary about the ancient snow and ice industry in the plain east of Naples

Alessandra Cianelli © 2008

Ghiaccio e neve sono stati per millenni oggetto di produzione, trasporto, stoccaggio, commercio ,consumo  e culto per la conservazione degli alimenti, (proteine animali) per utilizzi medicinali, per lussi e raffinatezze gastronomiche.Per secoli d’inverno si raccoglieva e conservava la neve caduta con particolari accorgimenti in fosse o strutture apposite (neviere).

D’estate la neve ghiacciata, tagliata in blocchi, veniva trasportata a valle nei luoghi di commercio e consumo.

A Napoli, capitale del regno,dove (come ovunque) la fornitura del ghiaccio e della neve era oggetto di appalto pubblico (arrende e privative),arrivava preferibilmente dal Faito via mare e dal monte Somma-Vesuvio via terra.

Quando alla fine del 19 secolo, in epoca post unitaria la neve naturale fu sostituita dal ghiaccio artificiale, nella piana a est di Napoli si impiantarono le prime fabbriche di ghiaccio artificiale(in genere insieme al ghiaccio si produceva birra e bevanda gassate vedi Peroni).

A Ponticelli ,come a Somma Vesuviana a Torre annunziata e a Mergellina ci sono  importanti santuari in cui si venera la Madonna della Neve.

Questi santuari furono dedicati alla neve e al ghiaccio,in luoghi strategici per la produzione il trasporto e la conservazione (cosi come ce ne sono di dedicati a madonne del grano) perche’  la vita di quelle comunita’ di uomini era legata a doppio filo alla neve e al ghiaccio.

Il progetto  e’ un video che ricostruisce  la geografia dell’antica industria della neve e del ghiaccio nella piana orientale di Napoli ,inseguendo echi, memorie ,suggestioni e tracce lasciate nell’architettura ,nell’archeologia industriale,nella toponomastica,nel paesaggio e nel ricordo.

Tutto il percorso  e’ seguito su una antica mappa settecentesca della citta’ e attraverso pagine di testi antichi, in cui sono evidenziati parole che riguardano usi ,costumi e luoghi relativi a neve e ghiaccio,mappe e immagini di  santuari, fabbriche ,madonne ad nives  etc.

L’itinerario fisicamente esplorato inizia dal mercato del pesce a Porta Nolana ,dove c’e l’ultima rivendita di ghiaccio al dettaglio; prosegue  per Barra dove ,al corso 4 novembre c’e una bellissima fabbrica di ghiaccio,molto conservata di epoca fascista,chiusa nel 2004;arriva a Ponticelli  davanti alla Basilica santuario di s.Maria ad nives,al centro di una festa tuttora molto sentita ,che si celebra ad agosto,il 5, memoria forse del tempo in cui il consumo del ghiaccio e dell’acqua nevata raggiungeva il culmine.

Il lavoro e’ un documentario immaginario perche’, e’ costruito su una intuizione:

la parte documentale  raccolta e’ il supporto di una visione, che serve a ricucire la memoria di  uno scenario in cui, natura e cultura collaborano e convivono.

Questa storia si e’ sciolta nel tempo come il ghiaccio e la neve al sole e bisogna immaginarla per ricordarla.

English
Snow and ice have been for ages the subject-matter of production, transport, storage, trade, consumption and worship for the storage of food (animal proteins), for medical uses, for gastronomic luxuries and refinements.For ages the snow fallen during the winter was stored through particular expedients into holes in the ground or in appropriate semi-hypogean constructions called “neviere”.

During the summer the iced snow, cut into blocks, was carried downhill to the places of trade and consumption.

It arrived at Naples, the capital of the Kingdom, by sea from the Faito Mountain and by land from the Somma Mountain-Vesuvius; in Naples (as anywhere) the supply of ice and snow was farmed out by the State through institutions such as those called, in ancient Italian language, “arrendamento” and “privativa”.When, at the end of 19^th century, during the post-Unitarian period, the natural snow was replaced by artificial ice, in the plain east of Naples the first factories of artificial ice were planted (usually, also beer like Peroni and gassy beverages were produced along with ice).

At Ponticelli, as well as at Somma Vesuviana, Torre Annunziata and Mergellina, there are important sanctuaries where Our Lady of Snow (Madonna della Neve) is worshipped.

These sanctuaries were dedicated to the snow and ice, in places that were strategic for the production, transportation and storage (as well as there are sanctuaries dedicated to the Ladies of the Corn) because life in those communities was closely knit with snow and ice.

The video reconstructs the geography of the ancient snow and ice industry in the plain east of Naples, following the echoes, memories, suggestions and traces left in architecture, industrial archaeology, toponymy, landscape and memory.

The whole path is followed on an ancient eighteenth-century map of the city and its surroundings and through the pages of ancient books, which draw attention to those words referring to usages, customs and places related to snow and ice, maps and images of sanctuaries, factories, Ladies of the Snow (Madonne Ad Nives), and so on. The work is an imaginative documentary because it is built up  on an intuition .

The documentary part supports a vision which serves the purpose of re-establishing the memory of a scenario in which nature and culture cooperated and cohabited as it once used to happen in those places. 
_{This story has melted away in time just as ice and snow melt in the sun and one has to imagine it in order to remember it.}

www.nestube.com/tube/video.php

Visual

Stills from video16/9-Imaginary documentary about the ancient snow and ice industry in the plain east of Naples