Montagna Viva, The Living Mountain:

Conversing with an experiment in

making (the local) in common

Fabio Franz

Sheffield School of Architecture

Bianca Elzenbaumer

Leeds College of Art

www.brave-new-alps.com

Building Radical Localities / COMUNfARE

Fostering non-capitalist spaces outside

the metropolis through popular design and

making (economies) in common

Vallagarina district, southern Alps, Italy

since October 2014

Montagna Viva

associazione per il fare in comune

The Living Mountain

association for making in common

Monchio, northern Apennines, Italy

since 2009

“In our mountains we construct on that

which remains of a culture of solidarity

and love for the soil, in order to experiment

with new forms of economy, agriculture

and culture. We do so by digging into local

memory but also by opening up to the

memories and knowledges of other peoples.”

Massimo De Angelis & Dagmar Diesner

commoner.org.uk

“Our daily bread” - performance by The Living Theatre group (2010)

“Women of the world: between crises and the commons” (2011)

“Mother Earth” - contribution to the local scarecrow competition (2013)

Restoration of the old lavatory in Lama di Monchio (2012)

“The Abundance, the mountain’s community garden” (2011-ongoing)

Community as a “web of direct relations

among subjects whose repetitive

engagement and feedback processes allow

them, through conflict and/or cooperation,

to define the norms of their interaction

on the basis of other values than those of

capital.”

“Making in common is our philosophy

to face the big problems of the crises

we are going through and that are the

effect of a world that is unjust, unequal

and dominated by the making of profits.

(...) Making in common is the means this

association uses.”

Commons and practices of commoning,

as a material and social dimension that

empowers people to cultivate other values

and ways of relating to each other/to nature

than the ones embodied and reproduced

by capital.

Fostering an ethos of permanent research

and experimentation

Fostering an ethos of permanent research

and experimentation

Working towards a nourishing

interpretation of buen vivir

Fostering an ethos of permanent research

and experimentation

Working towards a nourishing

interpretation of buen vivir

Experimenting with the agency of the local

to speak and act back