PASSATO PROSSIMO

The rural landscape of Puglia and Basilicata was profoundly transformed from the early post-war years through the 1960s. Since 2018 we have been documenting these territorial transformations. We called the project: “Passato Prossimo” (Recent Past)

The ideological and economic motivations of the changes can be summarized as follows: Populating remote and inhospitable territories (land reclamation, infrastructure development, residential settlements); creating a class of small landowners, reducing the dominance of large estates; easing social tensions (reintegrating ex-combatants and veterans, addressing peasant uprisings, poverty and poor housing conditions).

Our reasons for interest are: making visible the unknown landscape of the remote and uninhabited areas that were once targeted for settlement and development, and which now hold a particular fascination for the contemporary eye; documenting the existence of rural villages (borghi rurali) where, in some cases, new forms of community life, new housing models and new possibilities for hospitality are beginning to emerge; reconnecting with our recent past — a period close enough to still live on in family memory: the 1960s.