It is a veritable vocabulary, where the most curious tools of the various trades carried out in the past, were found and described by the pupils of the upper classes in words and pictures and placed in alphabetical order in three sections: the farmer, the artisans and the itinerant trades.

The book is part of the school project LEARN THE ART AND PUT IT ASIDE and the wider project in agreement with Ecomuseo WHITE APPEARS TO ME

L'articolo Vocabolario illustrato degli attrezzi dei mestieri proviene da Ecomuseo Bianzone.

The text evokes difficult times, marked by pandemics (such as cholera and Spanish flu) and the tragedies of world wars. It dwells in particular on the past century marked by profound changes with the advent of progress that facilitated people's lives and accessibility on the one hand, but disrupted the natural habitat of yesteryear on the other.

The book is enriched with numerous photographs that help to bear witness to the past.

The title and subtitle (“Lights and Shadows”) recall the alternation between dark and serene moments in people's lives; fireflies represent small lights that soften the darkness.

L'articolo LIBRO ‘QUANDO VOLAVANO LE LUCCIOLE’ proviene da Ecomuseo Bianzone.

L'articolo Da un’Ave Maria all’altra proviene da Ecomuseo Bianzone.

Doing and work understood as direct interaction between man and nature expressed a sense of existence in which each person felt himself to be the creator and participant in his own world, unlike today, when we feel less and less like participants, responsible and “actors” in the reality that surrounds us, but only frequenters and users.

As part of the ecomuseum project: “Mapping Bianzone”schoolchildren, with the project “Learn art and put it aside” discovered the old trades that were carried out in the village in the past, they learnt the gestures and got to know the tools and processes, with the help of experts and people who made themselves available. The year-long work led to the creation of a “Vocabulary of tools of the trade”and, at the beginning of the school year following the organisation ofthe ‘crafts corners” in the garden of Palazzetto Besta. 

Luciana Colombini, a primary school teacher, writes as follows:

It was an open-air workshop where the children, appropriately disguised, individually or in groups, performed the ancient crafts that once characterised Bianzone.
The cobbler, the locksmith, the farrier, the carpenter, the farmer are the most classic, but there was no shortage of those who sharpened knives and scythes, those who made brooms, those who cut wood, those who raked the hay, who filava, who carded. There were also the hawkers such as the chimney-sweeper, the umbrella-sweeper, the ragman, the tinsmith, funny and curious characters who lent themselves well to being played and who once carried out their task by wandering around the villages. 

È status It was nice to see how passionately the children imitated the ancient gestures, and it was even nicer to see some parents or grandparents sitting nearby trying to teach the “tricks of the trade”. 
In fact, the message with this project is once again to recover the past in order to learn about our own traditions that are unfortunately disappearing.

With this image, which someone in the audience described as “a painting”, ends this pleasant day that exalted taste and art in its various forms and made the older participants relive pleasant moments from their past.

The illustrated vocabulary of old trades is available at the Ecomuseo office and the City Hall.

L'articolo IMPARA L’ARTE E METTILA DA PARTE proviene da Ecomuseo Bianzone.

It is a book that, at first, makes you look at it for the beautiful pictures it contains, then you get to the last page in no time. There you realise that the book is pervaded by a very precise narrative logic, and then you go back to the beginning and look at it with different eyes, reflect, interpret, understand, comment with your neighbour.

It is like a poetic composition: it gives different sensations every time you look at it and gives each reader the opportunity to become a poet himself, attributing his own personal interpretation to it.
The authors have given us one of their own, singular and modern, involving. All that remains for us, reading the book, is to, as Foscolo put it, wander with our thoughts in the footsteps that take us far back in time and thank those who have lived in this beautiful but very tiring land of ours before us, giving us an environment that, whatever the season, looks like a postcard.

L'articolo LIBRO FOTOGRAFICO ‘ECHI E RETAGGI – RIFLESSI TRA BRATTA E PIAZZEDA’ proviene da Ecomuseo Bianzone.

A significant project of the Ecomuseo is the one involving Don Cyril Vitalini, parish priest of the hamlet of Bratta in the 1950s-60s. Don Cirillo was a well-liked religious figure in the village, a spiritual guide and example of human principles and values. Fr Cirillo loved the mountains and the people who lived there with sacrifice and sweat. Fr Cirillo loved to film and photograph his land and people.

The book and DVDs were greatly appreciated by the population, which attended the event in large numbers. The project succeeded in involving many people and gave rise to an interesting encounter between generations. The elderly, including some who knew Don Cirillo personally, were able to see themselves and/or their loved ones again in the photos and films, and recalled “how life used to be” in the mountains, telling their children and grandchildren episodes from their childhood and youth. The young people were interested and curious to see what the places they knew were once like.

“Good-natured, but not sluggish, independent-minded and firm, obedient to laws and authorities, but not servile...”

This is how the historian Scelsi described the people of Valtellina in 1864, three years after the Unification of Italy. Good-natured, but not sluggish, were certainly also the inhabitants of Bratta moulded by a rugged terrain to a sense of practicality and a spirit of sacrifice.

The many terraces wrested from the forests to contain the layer of land sufficient for the cultivation of rye, buckwheat and potatoes; the hard work to obtain the maximum yield with the minimum of means available; the ability to set the right allocation to the needs of men and animals; that atmosphere of familiarity that distinguishes them, a familiarity a little shy, a little rough perhaps, but full of humanity and generosity are a clear demonstration of this.

The motivations that led to the drafting of this simple volume were various. Firstly to keep alive the memory of places, things and faces that time is inexorably erasing, then to offer those who are older the emotion of recognising themselves and recognising in the images and environments evoked dear faces and moments of life lived. Moreover, to enhance and transmit to those who are younger a heritage of tradition and popular culture of great educational value.

This book is intended above all to be a tribute to the land of Bratta, its people and its priest, Don Cyril Vitalini who for many years shared difficulties and sacrifices with his parishioners.

The collection of images in the book is taken from the precious photographic archive that the Bratta priest created over time and that his granddaughter Bianca Valbuzzi made available to the Bianzone community. Taking inspiration from the many photographs taken and films shot by Don Cirillo, the Ecomuseo carried out research and study. First of all, there was a great deal of work to recover and classify the available material. Using the material thus catalogued, the Ecomuseo produced a literary text, a series of six dvds in which there are the most significant films shot by Don Cirillo in the 1950s-60s. An example of this can be seen at link.

È A public event was also organised for the presentation of the book and DVDs to the population, during which films from the period were screened.

The volume is the work of Vanda Cerveri, Luigi Marantelli and Christian Lino Sertorio,

The publication is edited by Marco Pietrogiovanna.

I dvd were realised by Luigi Marantelli e Michele Morellini.

L'articolo BRATTA – LUOGHI, COSE E VOLTI TRA PASSATO E PRESENTE proviene da Ecomuseo Bianzone.