Bisaccia, four days of meetings at the Casa della paesologia: an autumn journey in the country of clay

A good title could have been the 4 days. Our place is the days. Many go badly, others worse, but then every now and then someone beautiful comes along. I hope that the days of those who come to Bisaccia will be beautiful. We have set up a very rich program thanks to the generosity of those who will come to offer us their studies, their art. We only offer room and board. We have no private sponsors, we have not asked for contributions from the Municipality or other bodies. The house of paesologia lives thanks to the memberships of members (30 euros per year, for those who don’t know).

It is not usual to bring together so many people of value. Evidently they trust the house of paesology. They know that we are honest, sincere, passionate people. And now there are all the conditions to spend four days in the harshness of the Irpinia climate and in the sweetness of the closeness between the artists, those who will come to hear them and those from the town who want to go out, those who don’t want to give in to the militant discouragers. All those who come to speak are very dear to me, but I want to mention just one here, a pensioner from Castelnuovo di Conza. Is called Mario Porreca.

I told his story in Letter to those who weren’t there, is the story of a man who on the day of the earthquake lost his wife, his three children, his mother, his sister, a cousin and other relatives, as well as many friends and acquaintances. It is no coincidence that the 4 days begin on November 23rd. 43 years have passed since the earthquake that hit the bone lands. We know what happened next. I have given account of this at length. Anyone interested can read it Journey to the craterpublished in 2003. That book came into my hands the day my father died, but it was also the first book published by a national publisher, after 23 years of clandestine writing and booklets whose only form of circulation was envelopes with which I sent them around.
Mario Porreca will come to Bisaccia accompanied by Luca Zarra, a municipal employee of Castelnuovo, one of the many people who love me and follow my work. Some call them adepts, followers. They are simply sensitive people, people who recognize loyalty to certain battles and the fact that we are here not because someone recommended us. I was a primary school teacher for years and now I live with the things I write.

I have no assignments, no consultancy, I have no bosses to give an account to. The house of the countryside is a small miracle and the people who will come to Bisaccia are a small miracle. I already know many, others I will see for the first time. And we’ll see together what happens. As always, the program is only an indicative outline, then everything will take place with the spirit that exists in the days of Aliano, but in a different climate, in the anonymous and neglected days of November.

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Here is our poetics, attention to anonymous and neglected things. We will go to the alleys where no one goes anymore, we will open houses that no one has opened for a long time. We will use the streets, the light, even the rain if it comes. We will use our fragile bodies, we will also talk about hypochondria, we will talk about our bereavements, but also about our passions. We will eat delicious things starting with my brother’s pasta and beans and the things that people will bring from their lands and those that are coming to me through barter. Many threads that intertwine, a way of conceiving culture and community, a way of being in the world without hiding the prospect of death, the miseries of this violent and vile time. But we know that there is no need to sulk in our era. We know that we can still find a thread of joy. And 4 days is an immense amount of time.