Orticolario "Terrae"
Brief subtitle
To the earth. Not the majestic and imposing one that spins, but the other, the one that gets dirty, crumbles, “is low,” makes us work hard. The one with the lowercase ‘e,’ relegated to the drawers of the most remote thoughts. Here our gaze settles. On mother earth, which nourishes and gives life. This is the theme of Orticolario 2024. The soil. The great unknown. Solid substance between the fingers.
After immersing ourselves in water, the guiding principle of Orticolario 2023, now we want to get our hands dirty and bend our backs. Return to the essence of everything. Because, as Carlo Sgorlon, narrator of Friulian rural life, reminds us, “The soil is a mother. From it, we come, and to it, we will return. In it, we will be buried when it is over. The soil is the beginning and the end, and everything else is just a tale.”¹ And so it is. It is a mother because it allows the life of plants and animals, including humans. But it is also a daughter because it needs nourishment and care. Limitless attention. And at Orticolario 2024, we want to celebrate its importance. Emphasize its importance. Remind of the urgency not to take it for granted, to protect it, to treat it well.
The trend is to be interested in what grows, blooms, emerges, and not in the soil itself. Naked and raw. However, the harvest is good if the soil is happy. Respect for the earth is respect from the earth. In his “Praise to the Earth” a passionate collection of declarations of love for the soil (Nottetempo, 2022), the contemporary South Korean philosopher Byung-chul Han is explicit: “The earth is not a dead, lifeless creature without a voice, but a living and eloquent creature, a living organism. […] We have lost all traces of reverential fear towards the earth. We no longer see it, no longer hear it.” He is deeply convinced that the soil is a divine creation. The same conviction resided in the ancients. All cultures revered a maternal deity of the soil: for the Greeks, she was called Demeter, for the Romans, Ceres, for the Incas, the Quechua, and other Andean peoples, she was Pachamama. For everyone, she was mother earth, goddess of nature, crops, fertility.
The soil is a carrier of sowing and birth. It hosts roots, welcomes a myriad of living organisms, regulates the natural cycle of water, air, organic and mineral substances. The traces left in it are of great help for studies on climate and landscape.
In occasion of Orticolario 2024, we draw inspiration from all its expressions to become an ode and a prayer. A hymn to its cyclicity, its memory, its fertility. A return to the origin of everything, to the fallow, to the secret place where the powerful and invisible magic happens. Where the seed sprouts, and the root draws nourishment. Where everything begins and everything ends. From the soil to the soil.
¹ “The Army of Lost Rivers” by Paolo Sgorlon, 1985
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incidididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incidididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Bio
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incidididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incidididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
