How an idea is born: between art, land and memory
There are mornings when looking out from your balcony in San Vito Romano is not simply admiring a view, but witnessing an ancient ritual. In the early hours, when the air is cold and clear, the Sacco Valley fills with thin columns of white and cerulean-grey smoke. It is our farmers who, today as in the past, light small fires to burn the olive branches and the vine shoots after pruning.
The inspiration for this photographic and poetic project comes from a short circuit of impressions. I wanted to link, ideally, the majesty and sacredness of the famous “Fuochi del Basento” — great events where light marries art and opera — with the incredible spontaneous scenery of our countryside. Our farm bonfires have their own music too: the dry crackle of olive leaves and wood, the snap of vine shoots, and that anthropological flavour made of witty sayings and laughter among the rows, as when the wind suddenly turns and someone exclaims: “Smoke goes in the face of the good-looking!”.
This work is a tribute to our land, to the unchanging gestures of work in the fields and to the historical memory of San Vito Romano and nearby villages such as Bellegra and Olevano Romano. An attempt to capture the visual poetry of that smoke joining earth and sky, before the fire dies down and the ash returns to feed the soil for a new rebirth.
The breath of the valley
The light rises, cold and crystal clear,
over the clay roofs of San Vito,
while the mist lingers on the ridge
of an ancient time that has not ended.
From the dark terraces, among the rows,
a white breath rises, slow and light:
they are the fires of the fields, the old altars
where the vine shoot turns to smoke and snow.
Olive branches, brides of the flame,
crackle songs of seasons gone by,
a sharp scent of pruning lives on
in the clear air of the beloved valleys.
And from this window looking out,
far from the din and from the hurry,
the earth writes its trace to the sky,
while the Sacco Valley becomes a summit.
It is an opera without a score,
a bridge of sparks and of memory:
the past burns, the circle starts again,
the falling ash is our history.
#SanVitoRomano #SanVitoLovers #ValleDelSacco #MontiPrenestini #TradizioniLocali #VitaContadina #ReportageFotografico #ProverbiPopolari
The images are reconstructions created with artificial intelligence.