Publishing and Landscape: Contemporary Photography as Research #6 – Sclavanie
18.11.2022, 6:00 pm
Talk with
Davide Degano
Friday, November 18 at 6:00 pm, at Fondazione Benetton Studi e Ricerche (Palazzo Bomben) the third session of the second edition of "Publishing and Landscape: Contemporary Photography as Research" will take place. This series of public talks is dedicated to exploring the dialogue between landscape and contemporary photography within the editorial field.
This session focuses on Sclavanie, a book that tells the story of rediscovering a geographic microcosm—a mountainous area on the border between Italy and Slovenia, where the author Davide Degano’s roots lie. In Sclavanie (Penisola Edizioni, 2021), the local memory preserved by the inhabitants who continue to live in these places is examined through a critical, active, and conscious reappraisal of “the local.” With an ethnographic approach—starting from forms of dwelling, interaction with nature, and the practices of community, economy, and village life—cultural elements and resonances are isolated and explored. Photography allows these narrative elements to be seen in relation to contemporary threats and opportunities, offering a fresh, forward-looking perspective.
Exploring themes that characterize this region, such as emigration and the depopulation of small villages, becomes an occasion to reflect on the values of living and building community, their transformation, decline, extinction, but also rediscovery and flourishing. What opportunities do these territories offer? What vocations do they respond to? How can they compete within the frameworks of metropolitan globalism? The mountain village is not only a nostalgic strategy of repositioning but also a real possibility for regenerating social and cultural networks capable of ensuring employment and quality of life, as in very few other contexts. In this logic, the textual contributions and field analyses of anthropologist Livia Raccanello and urban planner Michael Biesmann provide further insight.
The discussion will feature the author, Davide Degano, a documentary photographer who has collaborated with the Fondazione Benetton on the direction of documentaries for the Carlo Scarpa International Prize for Gardens in 2014 and 2017, alongside Donatella Ruttar, architect and designer of the SMO – Slovensko Multimedialno Okno / Museum of Landscapes and Narratives in San Pietro al Natisone (Udine), of which she is now curator. She served as artistic director of the Stazione di Topolò – Postaja Topolove (Grimacco) for twenty-seven years, a “no-festival” of research-driven art and culture in the village of Topolò on the Slovenian border.
The initiative, curated by Steve Bisson (photography professor and director of the Photography Department at Paris College of Art and artistic director of Lab27) and Patrizia Boschiero (coordinator of the Carlo Scarpa Prize and head of the Fondazione Benetton’s publications), presents four events between October and December 2022. Each event centers on a different editorial project that stimulates discussion about the use of photography in studying and representing landscapes
These projects and books vary widely: from architecture, arts, and theory journals to exhibition catalogs, from monographs to research volumes. They demonstrate the creative potential of photography when it intersects with the themes of landscape.
Publishing and Landscape: Contemporary Photography as Research #6 – Sclavanie
18.11.2022, 6:00 pm
Talk with
Davide Degano
Friday, November 18 at 6:00 pm, at Fondazione Benetton Studi e Ricerche (Palazzo Bomben) the third session of the second edition of "Publishing and Landscape: Contemporary Photography as Research" will take place. This series of public talks is dedicated to exploring the dialogue between landscape and contemporary photography within the editorial field.
This session focuses on Sclavanie, a book that tells the story of rediscovering a geographic microcosm—a mountainous area on the border between Italy and Slovenia, where the author Davide Degano’s roots lie. In Sclavanie (Penisola Edizioni, 2021), the local memory preserved by the inhabitants who continue to live in these places is examined through a critical, active, and conscious reappraisal of “the local.” With an ethnographic approach—starting from forms of dwelling, interaction with nature, and the practices of community, economy, and village life—cultural elements and resonances are isolated and explored. Photography allows these narrative elements to be seen in relation to contemporary threats and opportunities, offering a fresh, forward-looking perspective.
Exploring themes that characterize this region, such as emigration and the depopulation of small villages, becomes an occasion to reflect on the values of living and building community, their transformation, decline, extinction, but also rediscovery and flourishing. What opportunities do these territories offer? What vocations do they respond to? How can they compete within the frameworks of metropolitan globalism? The mountain village is not only a nostalgic strategy of repositioning but also a real possibility for regenerating social and cultural networks capable of ensuring employment and quality of life, as in very few other contexts. In this logic, the textual contributions and field analyses of anthropologist Livia Raccanello and urban planner Michael Biesmann provide further insight.
The discussion will feature the author, Davide Degano, a documentary photographer who has collaborated with the Fondazione Benetton on the direction of documentaries for the Carlo Scarpa International Prize for Gardens in 2014 and 2017, alongside Donatella Ruttar, architect and designer of the SMO – Slovensko Multimedialno Okno / Museum of Landscapes and Narratives in San Pietro al Natisone (Udine), of which she is now curator. She served as artistic director of the Stazione di Topolò – Postaja Topolove (Grimacco) for twenty-seven years, a “no-festival” of research-driven art and culture in the village of Topolò on the Slovenian border.
The initiative, curated by Steve Bisson (photography professor and director of the Photography Department at Paris College of Art and artistic director of Lab27) and Patrizia Boschiero (coordinator of the Carlo Scarpa Prize and head of the Fondazione Benetton’s publications), presents four events between October and December 2022. Each event centers on a different editorial project that stimulates discussion about the use of photography in studying and representing landscapes
These projects and books vary widely: from architecture, arts, and theory journals to exhibition catalogs, from monographs to research volumes. They demonstrate the creative potential of photography when it intersects with the themes of landscape.
