paesaggisensibili is an independent observatory on contemporary landscapes, a space for research and experimentation of new approaches for the understanding of the territorial dynamics of our time. The great changes that have shaped the landscapes as we perceive them today have deep roots and must be sought back in time, in the forms of live and be part of every society. There are historical and c
ultural reasons that the geographer Eugenio Turri explains through the metaphor of the landscape as a theater, man and society behave towards the territory in which they live in a twofold way: as actors who transform the living environment, etching on it the sign of their own action, and as observers who are aware and understand the sense of their act. Increasingly, the acceleration of urban phenomena and the complexity of territorial systems, are intertwined and interdependent to global events such as climate change, migration, environmental crisis, as well as the health tread of Covid-19, which call into question the systems of life, work, mobility and social relations, in a word, the contemporary society as a whole. All factors that contribute to modify the identity of the territories by redefining their imaginary.
“The landscape dies when we are not able to replace one imaginary with another. Landscapes change, evolve, while maintaining the historical sequence that defined them, therefore it is lawful, indeed, necessary, to intervene when a process of change is activated. [...] When the landscape leaves its imaginary and one is unable to change it - in that very moment, the landscape dies.”
— Joan Nogué, geographer
There is the urgency for innovative territorial and political governance tools capable of embracing and engage the territories, reimagine their own future collectively conceived, starting from the communities themselves and their local resources. In order to define shared values and govern the emergence of the new landscapes, it seems important to us to define new paradigms that include new forms of narrative, based on interdisciplinary and multi-actor participation by merging different representations and imaginaries. Photography can bring a contribution to all this. The observation of the landscapes means to behold who we are: it is an effort to explore new approaches and methods to decode them (which representations), understand them (which processes intervene in the construction of the imaginary) and communicate them (narratives) composing a learning path valuable to support new ways of work for territorial policies. Paesaggisensibili it was therefore created to develop territorial narratives that take shape thanks to the contribution of different disciplines and the involvement of communities that collectively take part to the elaboration of the story.
