This research project investigates the role and potential of cultural infrastructure in peripheral and rural areas, taking into consideration current political debates around both ‘new regionalisms’ and the Anthropocene/Capitalocene narrative.
Having ar/ge kunst – Kunstverein of Bolzano as its central case study, the research is situated within the specificity of South Tyrol (Süd Tirol/Alto Adige) in Italy, a border region embodying a multiplicity of conditions that, through the lenses of culture, language, geography, history and economics, can help conceive of a curatorial and institutional practice within the extremes of the present political, ecological and migration situation.
The juxtaposition of the two texts addressed in the research title, ‘Thinking like a Mountain’ (Aldo Leopold, 1919) and ‘Thinking Like a Mall’ (Steven Vogel, 2015), constructs a ‘narrative device’ that contributes to the definition of a multifaceted and productive working framework for investigating the notion of ‘environment’ in its connotations at the intersection of culture, nature and techno-politics.
Emanuele Guidi is a writer, curator and artistic director of ar/ge kunst – Kunstverein of Bolzano (Italy).