LANDSCAPES FOR HOLIDAYS

INVESTIGATING LANDSCAPES OF MASS TOURISM 














44.0861° N, 9.8925° E

 LANDSCAPES@LANDSCAPESFORHOLIDAYS.COM
Landscapes for Holidays is an ongoing research and 
curatorial project initiated by architect Federico Godino
and curator Ilaria Brianti.


Supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture the project involved
 two years of cultural program in the maritime town of San Terenzo, Italy,
 and subsequent publications and conferences.
    The project started in 2021 with the request,
    from the regional fine arts authority, to start
    the reactivation of an underused museum
    located in the historic castle of San Terenzo,
    owned by the Ministry of Culture. Our proposal
    was to understand the relationship of this object
    with its geographical and cultural landscape,
    and therefore propose a program and a policy
    to integrate it with its territory

















The main topic quickly became the interpretation of landscape in territories interested by mass tourism. How the literary, artistic and media imaginary influenced the construction of highways, viaducts, artificial sandshores, towns. The relationship between the physical landscape and its depictions and the mutual influences of these layers became the center of this research.

The ligurian coastline was one of the first italian regions interested by high affluence of tourists after the second world war, due to the proximity to the richest industrial areas of the country (Milan and Turin). Its interest was also due to the relevance of historical depictions and narrations of its landscape related to the era of grand tour, when german and english aristocrats visited the region in their travels and offered the first touristic depictions of it, triggering a mechanism of mental landscape that influenced the history of many settlements. This is the case of San Terenzo, described by poet lord Byron and Mary Shalley - who bought a house there-  and painted by Arnold Böcklin. 

The ligurian coastline was one of the first italian regions interested by high affluence of tourists after the second world war, due to the proximity to the richest industrial areas of the country (Milan and Turin). Its interest was also due to the relevance of historical depictions and narrations of its landscape related to the era of grand tour, when german and english aristocrats visited the region in their travels and offered the first touristic depictions of it, triggering a mechanism of mental landscape that influenced the history of many settlements. This is the case of San Terenzo, described by poet lord Byron and Mary Shalley - who bought a house there-  and painted by Arnold Böcklin. 
The ligurian coastline was one of the first italian regions interested by high affluence of tourists after the second world war, due to the proximity to the richest industrial areas of the country (Milan and Turin). Its interest was also due to the relevance of historical depictions and narrations of its landscape related to the era of grand tour, when german and english aristocrats visited the region in their travels and offered the first touristic depictions of it, triggering a mechanism of mental landscape that influenced the history of many settlements. This is the case of San Terenzo, described by poet lord Byron and Mary Shalley - who bought a house there-  and painted by Arnold Böcklin.

METODOLOGY: COLLABORATIVE MAPPING

In 2022 we started a collaborative mapping project to rethink the digital representation of this territory. To investigate how we could use digital media to give an alternative representation of the landscape, based on non extractive premises. The process involved a game designed to trigger discussions on public space, a phase of participatory 3D scan and a series of events where this map was used to trigger discussion on the use of the territory.

The co-envisioning process included a series of 3D scanning workshops, where participants were encouraged to use simple devices such as smartphones and tablets to scan places and objects that formed part of their affective cartographies.

2022 edition

2022 edition
Photo by ATAL Collective
     The 2022 edition was the starting point of a co-envisioning process for the castel of San Terenzo, Italy. Using photography as a main support for a 4 month activation process, the initiative concluded with an exhibition in September 2022 and featured a public space intervention in collaboration with architecture collective ATAL. The program also included a series of workshops, talks, and performances with invited artists including CRTL+S, Francesca Gotti, Giovanni Galanello, Mattia Tettoni, and Celeste Tellarini. A conference was organized and moderated with contributions from distinguished guests such as Giovanni Piovene and Marco Ghetti (Piovene Fabi), Carlotta Franco (Eterotopia), Beatrice Moretti (UniGe), and Mariaelena Buslacchi (Université d’Aix-Marseille).






2023 edition

The 2023 edition was organized in collaboration with Lucia Croci Candiani. Building on the previous year’s experiment, the project developed into a collective research process that fostered dialogue with the town’s inhabitants, particularly through cultural associations such as Pro Loco and Nassa. Together with these actors and the artistic collective ADORA, a participatory mapping initiative was carried out, laying the groundwork for an extended engagement with the local context. As part of this process, artists were invited to take part in a two-month introductory and mediation workshop designed to explore the area and spark critical reflections on the use of public space. The outcome was a festival held from 23 to 25 June 2023, centered on the temporary reactivation and reopening of the historic San Terenzo Castle as a public space. The festival sought both to offer a counter-narrative to the highly touristic identity of the area and to reclaim public spaces for non-touristic uses within the town.      
The participatory process encouraged the involvement of the local community in co-definition and transformation of different spaces within the castle and across San Terenzo. The event featured an indoor exhibition, outdoor installations, and a public program of design and artistic workshops, talks, and conferences with local stakeholders. Invited artists included Yu Kato, Roberto Casti, Gerolamore, Gaia Ginevra Giorgi, and Lidia Bianchi. In addition, a series of workshops organized in collaboration with the recycling company BLASTIC introduced participants to creative applications of recycled materials in design.    

 2022 edition
Photo by Yao Chen Wu













Notes on San Terenzo

San Terenzo is a historic village on Liguria's coastline. Its proximity to the famous Cinque Terre and its fast motorway connections with the main cities of northern Italy make it an extremely popular destination for summer tourism. Since the early 1950s, the seasonal influx of inhabitants has profoundly transformed the area in its architectural, infrastructural, ecological, and economic dimensions. These changes have influenced the way many people—both residents and visitors—relate to the landscape and develop attachments to some of its features. As in Calvino, a predatory attitude towards a place often triggers a similar emotional approach in other aspects of people’s lives.
Liguria was among the first European territories to confront the phenomenon of tourism. Representations of San Terenzo in painting and literature began to circulate from the nineteenth century onwards, thanks to English and German visitors. Since then, depictions of the Riviera’s landscape have continued to multiply, leading up to the era of mass tourism.
Today, San Terenzo embodies the contradictions of many Italian coastal towns. The transformations of its landscape reveal, in a particularly visible way, the tension between efforts to preserve a fragile territory and the drive to exploit its full economic potential. These two tendencies are in conflict, yet within their clash it is possible to discern new and unexpected ways of shaping the landscape and living with it.