a personally professional portfolio
researching, curating & interpreting il piccolo museo delle cose di cucina e pasticceria for il ricetto di candelo
the research from my personal research project for my master’s from the university of gastronomic sciences of pollenzo has extended to involvement in candelo. a few months after graduation, i was invited back to help perpetuate the research i had just brushed the surface of and assist in the curation of the museum for the ricetto.
i have compiled my field notes and reflections as this process takes place from end of may 2023 through end of june 2023.
in a local museum network, historical collections contribute towards creating cultural landscapes that tell stories. in candelo, the dedicated persons who work with said networks are known to be researchers, officials, collectors, and curators. this is one of these stories. *queue the law & order: special victims unit “dun-dun.”*
field notes
week 1: may 22 to may 28
in full transparency, my curatorial experience is limited, casual really. it’s more desired than practiced, we’ll say, with some stints as an intern and working around curatorial and material culture environments, not necessarily in curatorial or material culture environments (at least not on a fully professional scale). so when i accepted the invitation to return for this project and next chapter, i was initially thrilled...before realization of my own lack of real curatorial involvement kicked in. nerves and feelings of unpreparedness shortly followed, and i’d be lying if i said a moment of panic didn’t also occur, which naturally my mother fell victim to (sorry, mom). mantras were chanted and words of support gushed from my friends and family, which helped lull my internal chaos (a bit). reality met imagination upon arrival to candelo.
my first few days here felt strange yet natural. i was granted keys and my own research “office” in the local library, and notified about two new civil service interns who would be helping me with my work (whatever that meant - my work, that is, not their work). i wasn’t sure how to introduce myself to others, but that was quickly abated when i was referred to as “student researcher,” “american girl,” or “that student from pollenzo.” to be fair, they all suffice, though i think i’ll self-refer as “independent researcher and curatorial consultant.” consultant just has that sort of sexy vagueness that doesn’t beg further inquiry.
my first few days were spent reviewing my own previous research, personal notes, and many rough draft plans. a few translations here and there helped paint a better picture on “collectionism” and the birth and inspiration of valerio’s collection. a site visit refreshed my memory of the layout, the lighting, and the current collection on display - one might carefully kindheartedly say the current exposition is un cazzino: pots and pans line the walls and hang from the ceiling, chocolate and pastry molds balance delicately on glass cabinet shelves behind lock and key, machinery looms in the darker corners, cobwebs and dust cover much of the space. the current collection on display is only a fraction of what valerio possesses and has collected - he has six other spaces that are packed even more than this one, which still allows the visitor to gingerly navigate the tiled floor.
![]()
this seemingly chaotic and undesirable location is inevitable - the space is within the walls of a medieval structure. damp and cold, the stone and wood structures make up the physical environment and exhibit space that we have to work with. the ricetto has other museums here already that work within this environment - it is part of the charm and antiquity of this space. there is less a worry of intrusive animals and insects than of the possible damage from water or freezing temperatures, particularly during cold, wet piemontese winters. what seem like roadblocks in fact help us to narrow down and reckon with the realistic approach the curation will require. a general plan is set in motion (somewhat - most of what was said was spoken in fast-paced italian, with a healthy dose of the piemontese dialect thrown in) and valerio and i will crack at cleaning and setting up one corner of the space next tuesday.
between this research, i attempt at settling into my life in candelo. a visit to the local grocery allows me to stock up on essentials, a visit to the local bakery and wine shop for equally essential carbs and sips. a dinner from the pizzeria across my yard (literally) serves as a delicious and wholesome dinner for one of my first nights in town, and an eventual visit to the pharmacy for tissues and cough medicine as my allergies and body react to the changing environment that the piemonte approaching summer offers. aperitivo in town, a mere 300 meters from my own home’s entryway, bustles nightly, with cafes circling the main piazza that lies in front of the medieval structure. hyperlocality and small-town scenes remind me a bit of home in marco island...but off-season marco island, although there are sure signs of life: camper vans and northern europeans with high-tech gear, well-to-do ladies and gentlemen walking delicately over ancient cobblestones, student voices echoing over stone walls in pursuit of what appeared to be the most intense assignment of caccia al tesoro. as summer blossoms here, more than just a museum will come to life.
week 2: may 29 to june 4
a general life schedule has been set, although it seems faced with a few disruptions such as the “arrival” of my permit of stay documents in bra. “arrival” indicates that the italian government has sent them...but they aren’t sure exactly when they’ll arrive, so they’re not sure when i should arrive. i traveled on wednesday to head to bra in the off-chance that they’d be ready but, alas, they were not. the long holiday weekend (italian republic day) was spent in bra and i returned on saturday with marisa, a friend from school, so we could attend candelo’s first mercato della terra (earth market).
this week, although short due to my travel back to bra, was quite productive. valerio and i managed to get time in the actual museum and exhibit space and we cleared the corner dedicated to kitchen and pastry items of the oven variety, which we are calling mondo del fuoco della cucina for now. this included clearing pentole and paioli for polenta or ris a cagun, lids and lanterns, as well as tucking away the stacks of bielline and molds for budin, bunet, and other pastry molds. i also had the pleasure of meeting my two interns who are helping me out this month, irene and marco. both are civil service volunteers with the commune di candelo, serving 25 hours per week as part of their studies and work. irene’s area of focus and study is medieval history, quite fitting for having the opportunity to work in a medieval-era structure. marco comes from a performance background, so his skills will assist in the actual production of our exhibition space (lighting, placement, etc.). we discussed what the project is about and how they can help, determining that the primary focus at this point is information gathering for interpretation. figuring out the “how” of this project and exhibition will come later.
while back in bra, i enlisted the help of one of the greatest staff of the university of gastronomic sciences, bruno. as librarian, he helped me procure multiple texts of interest - covering piemontese recipes, ethnographies and biographies, historical texts on kitchen materials, etc. six of these i lugged back north to candelo with me to add to a growing stack of texts to review, gather, write, and translate.
at moments i still feel quite unsure about this work. not having anyone to report to in any sort of hierarchical way is both liberating and debilitating. having come from multiple different backgrounds of academia, i have gotten used to the assignment-style work, with set expectations. here, those do not exist insomuch as they are determined by yours truly. it feels a bit like swimming in the dark - the hard skills i have, but the environment is unfamiliar. i am grateful to have a dedicated space in candelo’s library, with volunteers that are interested and helpful. i have resources abound, interest and support and yet, all the same, it feels like i’m treading water in a sort of stagnant, “surviving but doing fine!” kind of way. this next week is focusing on transforming treading into breathstrokes, to play into my analogy.
week 3: june 5 to june 11
this week kicked off on a high coming off of candelo’s first mercato della terra, a slow food market highlighting local producers and growers, artisans and change-makers. this is a once a month market on the first sunday, and, as a part of slow food biella, candelo is strategically and historically unique: the ricetto is and of itself a structure built for this kind of gastronomic conviviality. as one of the few remaining and functional ricetti in the piemonte, let alone in italy, there’s a sort of sad but beautiful sentiment that comes from this market taking place here. however werirdly historically nostalgic i may come off, it was a lively event - a speech from the mayor, musicians performing alpine herding songs, a ribbon-cutting, presentations on biellese biodiversity, and hidden market nooks and crannies, producers set-up within the old walls of a medieval fortress. at one point, i turned a corner and a distinct, cold cheese smell hit me - aged toma. surreal moments hit a peak when marisa and i, who had visited for a few days, set up a little sun-worship and beer-sipping moment at the base of the outer ricetto walls. the vista overlooked blue layered alpine hills and puffy white clouds tufted the blue blanket above us. the day rounded out perfectly with a full tasting menu from il torchio 1763, a restaurant within the ricetto. although we dined at 8pm, we didn’t hit the door until near on 11:30pm...the staff letting us nourish a house-made bottle of wine on bellies full of piemontese classics and creatives: vitello tonnato, battuta di fassona, uova fritta con fonduta, salmon crespella with asparagus, tiramisu and caramel gelato. quite a perfect and poetic day.
but alas, sunday funday has its end, too. back to the work i’m here for! marisa accompanied me on a visit and workday within the museum with valerio on monday, bearing firsthand witness to the constructed chaos we have carved out for ourselves. most of our time was spent hanging and highlighting different stampi per torte above the oven corner of the exhibition space. it wasn’t a coordinated process, but rather a very chaotic hammer-and-nail-wherever-i-see-fit kind of methodology. we at least settled on having an odd number up there...rain flushed us out of a planned visit to the spiaggetta di candelo, a neat little riverside spot on the oropa, so we opted for wine, music, study, and a movie instead. easy like...monday evening? just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
marisa departed the early next morning, leaving me to return to a usual weekly routine of library stints, site visits, and perpetual planning. this week we did knock out a chunk of the physical curatorial part, clearing most of the central table for the laboratory/working kitchen display section (using false flour, an apron, rolling pin, some molds of some of the stamps) as well as setting up the stove and confectionary areas. the baseline is mostly set, with a few needs and a few questions outlasting - like where the heck we are going to move some giant stones he has, as well as which pots and pans to remove or move from the ceiling hooks, and overall when we’re going to get all of this done.
if i learned anything this week from my field work and research, it’s that my work here is going to shift from physical curatorial work, the real apple of my hopeful eye, to research and interpretive preparation. the planned opening for the museum is not until end of september, beginning of october, when peak tourism begins for the region. however, i won’t be here much longer (just look at the dates below - that’s it). initially a layer of anxiety blanketed me with trying to stress in-person with valerio about the layout, but a moment of clarity kicked in sometime this week, i can’t pinpoint it when...but this moment helped me realize that feasibly, given the time and effort i am providing, with consideration to the other contigencies (like the fact that i am unpaid and here voluntarily), that the work i can do best is the research layout. a sort of portfolio of information, if you will, for the appropriate parties (i.e. simone from the comune and valerio) to use, mold, and craft into a physical manifestation - whether that be printed materials hanging on the wall, interactive tablet technology, or even a handy-dandy printed booklet for visitors to flip through. those decisions can’t be made by me because, well, i don’t have money to fund those things. i will, however, be leaving a suggestion with said parties to encourage them one way or another based on our interpretive baseline and potential. *insert deep sigh of relief and realization here.*
regardless of this sort of vague outline, this interval progression, this...project, i do feel seen, supported, and heard. i’m finding ways to express my voice and push out that meek midwestern mindset i was born into (something i could probably take to heart with my personal life, not just my professional life). i feel strongly about my growing ability to speak in italian and converse with locals, politely ask for clarification, and find ways to joke and smile. i’m building relationships with local baristas and library volunteers (one who perused her own collection to share some texts with me - one just on quotidian oven cooking traditions within biella - jackpot!). my research is revealing other tangential realms of realization: my interest in nomadic cooking and the emerged “vanlife” movement, freelance writing for italy segreta (coming soon), the material science of cookware (an ideal course for unisg, perhaps), and notes and reflections on this entire curatorial process.
week 4: june 12 to june 18
another week started off on an interesting divergent activity from my usual day-in, day-out library research. a friend from unisg, ilaria, lives and studies in biella currently, her programming focusing on tourism and cultural heritage (the title is actually insanely long, so when i do find it, i will update this). as part of her studies and her work, she has expanded into a few different projects, including working for slow food travel biella, a sort of entity of slow food that highlights “slow travel,” focusing on areas and producers that perpetuate slow food’s ideals of good, clean, and fair. as part of this work, she invited me to visit with a producer on monday.
it was a very full day! we started off with her arrival in candelo, where i showed her my lovely library office and we each cracked on some studying and research. a homemade lunch followed - a seasonal veggie salad, a pasta salad, and a bit of chocolate and pear tort to finish it off. a coffee and a quick change later, we were on our way to the riverfront, which has become a local pilgrimage spot for me. a few moments in the sun and a little stroll brought us to where the producer was awaiting us in her car. pamela arrived with her son, both who are part of azienda agricola andrea manfrinati, a local producer of wines (my favorite being their le cinque rue, a blend of nebbiolo and a local variety that is between a bonardo and barbera grape). our first stop was the local office of città del vino associazione nazionale, a quasi viticultural and tourism office that promotes wines and growers in the area. she showed us old prints of her current vineyards that she manages with her son and husband, and then brought us over to the mayor’s office for ilaria to explain a bit about her ideas for a project and research. that happens sometimes in these small italian towns - just meeting the mayor casually (who, might i add, is a beautiful older woman, stylish and fit, with a great sense of humor - and hair). then off we headed to villa era, a beautiful space that houses vineyards along with a cellar, event space within a 19th century estate, a winter garden room, and a basement workshop. this isn’t just any workshop, and my senses were tingling as i walked in. davide furno creates botanical models out of wax - and not those crappy replicates that look plastic and shiny. these, you can hardly tell if they’re real or fake, blemishes artistically incorporated onto their immaculately painted surfaces, shapes wonky and imperfectly replicated. this art has so much potential, in my opinion, as a means to preserve and display botanical biodiversity. he mentioned that he often got commissioned to create models of the last harvest, or the first fruit of a new tree, other tokens of memory and pride for italians who produce and have close relationships with their plants. we see many displayed throughout the villa - on giant hand-carved mantels, in bowls on a library desk, in glass shelves in the wall. my material culture nerd was showing, that’s for sure. after a tour, a quaint desgustazione of their rosé and a few bites from local producers - crek and toma - made for a calm and welcome end to the day. pamela was kind enough to return us to candelo for ilaria to catch the bus. we thought we’d be late, but as the bus rolled up, it turned out that pamela was friends with the driver, who promptly got off to have a quick few minute conversation - bella italia!
tuesday was dedicated to research: the usual digging, translating, and organizing of notes from my treasure trove of texts. most of my books focus on recipes, as it seems particularly difficult to find books on the tools and implements of a kitchen themselves. one book, storia della pentola by eugenio medagliani and carlo g. valli, shares an incredible amount of information about pots and pans, particularly their development and changes both in material and use, as well as the science and art of the shapes, forms, and benefits of these pots. they break down the advent of fire use and how we developed into using various forms of heat - putting food into a fire (oven), putting food above fire (stovetop), and heating food using other elements (pressure cooking, steam cooking, and water cooking, like bagnamaria). each of these types calls for different materials, sizes and forms for their intended purposes. other books delve into the history of sweet delights in the subalpine region, recorded pedestrian knowledge of oven cooking, a gastronomic dictionary of the piemonte, and more. each of these books have provided angles and perspectives that are helping to craft an overall theme for the exhibition, presenting the method of cooking and the related material culture that follows, along with referenced recipes of common knowledge to help make the connection.
this interpretation and research has altered, however, as i was informed on wednesday that we do indeed have funding, just enough for audio recordings and effective and strategic lighting. and so, my written and printed interpretation booklet that i had been crafting this entire time, although not totally useless now, was nixed. this packet, however, did help me visualize and layout how the audio should go - as we have about five to six audio scripts focusing on different objects and thematic areas within the exhibition, this information just needs to be remolded and formed into a script form. and, as it turns out, yours truly may be the voice for the english recorded audio for this exhibition. we’ll know more in the future...as it goes with this project.
although frustration and exasperation followed this news, it helped me hone in and focus on the tasks that are more important for me, which is research and writing for the scripts. while i was hoping to do more curatorial, hands-on object work within the exhibition and museum, it seems that the situation is not calling for that now. in a way, that is a silver lining - although initially upset about that, as i’ve worked with valerio within the museum, i have continually recognized that while i have the knowledge about these objects, there is a limit to what i am able to effectively contribute to that is being heard on the receiving end of things. this could be a fancy way to say i am not being heard, but it has given me a moment to realize that maybe i am better capable of creating the story of this sort of gastronomic and museum chaos than i am trying to organize a mess that isn’t mine to fully engage with. nevertheless, i am excited for script writing as i have been interested in perhaps venturing into audio work, narration, storytelling, etc...my poor friends can vouch as victims of my multi-minute whatsapp messages, although many have said i would make a good podcast. that’s for later.
wednesday night closed out with a viewing of a film by paolo casalis, director of barolo boys, who additionally produced a cooperative film titled i ribelli del cibo, focusing on producers in the alto adige. put on with support of slow food biella (and by extension, candelo) as well as a egda (ethnobotany and ethnogastronomic diversity of the alps), a tasting of local products and products included in the film followed, with a nightcap beer with one of the founders of egda, pietro, who also happens to be a friend of one of my “italian brothers” and housemates from bra. a full circle kind of night, as pietro presented egda to us back in january of 2022, when we were first brought to the ricetto di candelo for a visit with our piemontese study trip. a very wholesome, circular, and educational evening in candelo.
this week was a short one, as i returned to bra on thursday in order to be present for my (finally ready) permesso di soggiorno pickup. now, i’m legally able to stay in italy and looking for work until october - so fingers crossed!
week 5: june 19 to june 25
my last week was somewhat anticlimactic - although we had plans to work in the museum exhibition once or twice more, ideally doing a group visit with simone, valerio and myself, schedules changed. instead of playing around with the exhibition so much, i focused on drawing from the local texts provided by the candelese library to build up my research and interpretive notes. i must reiterate that i am grateful to bruno and the unisg library, as the university’s texts seemed to cover much more of a deeper basis of knowledge beyond just recipes or recollections of quotidian life. through these texts in addition to the plethora of documents and previously written content by valerio, i patched together an initial draft of my audio scripts and sent it off. this was not easy work, and reminded me a great deal of when i worked in interpretive writing and research at my previous jobs, particularly at naples botanical garden.
research and interpretation for programming is similar to being a butcher and a chef. the whole animal is the field of knowledge - all the resources, information, opinions, sources, media and beyond that support the topics of your work. you, the butcher in this anecdote, must then begin to slice, carve, and select - trimming the fat, separating the legs, opening the chest cavity, draining the blood. it’s a visceral, overwhelming, and addicting process - the more you know, the more you become curious. recently reiterated by a former professor, dr. krishnendu ray, research never naturally comes to a close, it must be cut off. and so, you, the butcher, must then continue to partialize and section-off the most pertinent of information in order to tell the most effective baseline story. the work doesn’t end there. you may have started as the butcher, but now you become the chef. you have to select and portion out the preferred cuts correctly; season, marinate, care for that cut in the best and most individual but mission-serving way, cook to precision, and present it to the public. this is interpretation. as a chef, you are interpreting the cut - the meat has been extracted from the field and has been provided by that “butcher of research” but you transform into a “chef of interpretation” by adding flair, intrigue, excitement, and engagement to the interpretation. i find that i like being both the butcher and the chef, but i mostly dread being the chef.
as the “chef of interpretation,” then, i was tasked with preparing that final cut of audio scripts - initially in my native english and an additional copy of roughly translated italian, which is to be peer reviewed by the two interns, irene and marco. the plan is to go back and forth virutally now, refining the scripts for audio production. we still have missing information that requires valerio’s input - dates, locations, accession information, manufacturers, materials, styles, forms. as much as it seems, valerio is my sous - he’ll garnish, plate, and confirm all looks good and well and is true to our recipe and desired interpretation. with all of this being said, i have dates and deadlines in my mind (finally!). after meeting for a brief moment with valerio to procure the medieval door keys for the museum, which i held onto and visited for two days, i also met with simone and the interns, who gave a ballpark finishing date of around end of september with the inauguration in october at one point or another. of course, i am to be invited and presented, they assured me. i didn’t do this project and research for fame and fortune, but it will be damn nice to see my name on that exhibition.
my last few days were spent thoughtfully - eating gelato, walking the ricetto, saying hi and bye to producers, restauranteurs, librarians, volunteers, and neighbors that i had gotten to know in my time in candelo. a fantastic meal at la taverna del ricetto yielded a fantastic plating of perfectly fried frogs - a biellese and candelese choice since way back when. to eat what i had been reading about historically and what is familiar to a southern florida swamp sister like myself (okay, i don’t get into the swamp that much, but i do eat frog quite a bit when i’m back near the everglades) provided a very cool book-to-life moment. nostalgia and stress set in, mostly during the packing phase. books were returned and packed up, clothing wrapped around canestrelli and
ratafià, shoes stuffed in corners and pockets of space. a final ride from my airbnb host, monica, felt like getting a lift from one of my aunts, dropping me off at the weirdly abandoned candelo train station with hugs, kisses, pats on the back and shoulder, and warm words painted with wide smiles.
this research isn’t completely over, as there’s the possibility of continuance and refining in the coming months. so, although these field notes are over, as is my time being physically in candelo, this work lives on. i anxiously await the start of the next chapters and hope that the inauguration ceremony of the new museum system in the ricetto di candelo is received with interest, joy, and pride by the local community.
“presentation to the press: new tour route of candelo”
the inauguration of il piccolo museo delle cose di cucina e pasticcera and the other ricetto museums
rereading the above notes, particularly the last paragraph, gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. reliving my mindset, nostalgia, struggles and successes of this project makes me all the more proud of the work i have done and appreciative of the support and network i have. there certainly was a continuance and refining of this work...
around the beginning of 2024, my associates from the comune di candelo reached out with good news - they confirmed they had sourced funding to proceed with the new museum system. i don’t say “system” in the grand, theoretical sense of shaking the foundational conception of what a museum is, but rather the physical, literal sense for reimagining how a collection is presented, interpreted, and percieved, this being through innovative technology.
with the last update in october or november of 2023, you can imagine i was quite thrilled to hear of real, tactile, non-aspirational news - stuff was happening! not only was i updated, but i was also asked if i would like to lend my voice to pro
vide the english interpretation and audio for the new museum system. me?! the voice of a museum?! flattered.
in march, the organization responsible for this cool new tech, aurorameccanica, reached out to me. with a brief email introduction, videos of the current light and audio (in italian), and a script in attachment, i was set up to record. i’ve done a few audio recordings in the past - most recently for my friends jbrie and cheesemon, also known as the cheeseboiiis - so i understood what needed to be done. and so, a few days after returning from a study trip to mexico, i found myself sitting in the pollenzo food lab’s laundry room, surrounding by cooks’ coats and plonge cloths, drafting audio recordings with my tascam.
about a week later, i recieved an official e-invite:
“Ci siamo, stiamo per presentare e raccontare questo importante passo per Candelo e per il territorio: parte il nuovo percorso di visita multimediale al Ricetto di Candelo, una novità che unisce tradizione e innovazione, consentendo ai visitatori di immergersi nella storia del borgo medievale, del paese ed in generale del Medioevo.”
“Here we are, we are about to present and tell about this important step for Candelo and the area: the new multimedia tour route to the Ricetto of Candelo is starting, a novelty that combines tradition and innovation, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the history of the medieval village, the town and the Middle Ages in general.”
signed,
the mayor of candelo.
another week later, on april 9, a rainy, grey, and typically ugly piemontese day, with a tray of pastries in hand, i made my way by car up to candelo with my friend andrea, who was kind enough to join me on this peculiar voyage. not even he knew of candelo, and he’s from north of milan - physically close enough and yet conceptually obscure enough of a place this candelo is.
as objectively icky of a day it was, it added to the drama of this medieval location. at moments i felt like i was there within these middle ages (a title lacking a lot of context by the way - how does one just call 1,000 years “the middle” as if nothing happened?) - struggling to walk evenly across cobblestones, petrichor perfume hanging heavily, large, iron-clad wooden doors hiding little worlds of a time long past. one of these doors was open to us, welcoming us into a thankfully dry room filled with seats and the trickling-in of dripping attendees. a brief yet charismatic introduction initiated the inauguration, with players from the comune, the region, and organizations sharing their role in this development, followed by a demonstration of the lantern technology, a cute but humbling recognition of that one random american girl in the room (me, it’s me), and a walk up the staircase brought us to the first installation, a large-scale bird’s eye view of the ricetto. projected upon this 3D blueprint are images and “clickable” spots of interest that overview the locale. i had seen this installation before on my first visit to the ricetto back in january of 2022, during my study trip of the piemonte with my fellow “mogwfcm” peers.
the rest of the tour was spent visiting the various museums and museum-y locations. i say museum-y as one location was more of an archive come to life, a space often used for temporary exhibits but now with permanent interpretive technology that brings books to life, and another location housing many quotidian objects and interprets the daily home life in candelo, a space needing some more curatorial and interpretive love (no one ever lived in the ricetto, only stayed temporarily during times of strife or unease in the area - it was generally a commercial market and production center for wine, spirits, and food products). the second to last museum was “mine” - of course, i do not own any of it, but i feel like i left a little part of me there that marks it as mine in a way.
il piccolo museo, in its typically dark and cantina-like presence, found itself in a much more pleasant, intentional light. in near complete darkness one enters, a glowing podium’s invitation to leave a lantern the only indication of what could lie behind. an almost eerie musical sequence begins, complemented by the flickering of a single amber-hued lightbulb, and brings context to the space. a thick piemontese accent, the voice of the proprietor valerio angelino catella, enters the scene, followed by moments of light shining on various objects - the putagé, the 42-times repaired polenta pot, the terracotta bielline used locally in Ronca, the large copper bassina for confectionery treats, the electric green Pastiglie Leone machine...
i’m not sure how to iterate my feelings about seeing these objects in this new, aesthetically-pleasing, thematic and theatrical light - i spent hours, days, weeks with them in this space. i sketched in my journal every 42 of those repairs on that polenta pot, i cleaned out the inside of that bassina, i tried to lift that Pastiglie Leone machine on my own (and failed miserably). i imagine it is a similar kind of pride a parent feels when they watch their child perform their first school dance, or when you watch a friend open a gift you know they’ll love, this sort of secret and humble pride, this inexplicable internal glow.
the day wound down with our last visit, stopping in the ecomuseo della viticoltura, the ecomuseum of viticulture. it is here and in il piccolo museo where my voice can be heard speaking for these objects, processes, and history (in english, of course). it’s a weird feeling to know that potentially tens, hundreds, maybe thousands of people may hear me speak, my chicago-born, alabama-tinted accent reverberating from the speakers tucked into strategically hidden corners of thousand year-old rooms.
as the attendees trickled out, they thanked the hosts, sharing waves and italian cheek kisses, umbrellas popping. all who were left were myself, andrea, the associates from the comune, and the mayor. a commemorative bottle of wine was gifted to me (accompanied by a photo of myself with the mayor) along with the goodie bag of books and pamphlets. thanks and goodbyes were given and, for the first time in two years, these were real goodbyes. i had always known i would be back in some way in order to continue this project and see it’s culmination. now it had happened. it was over - well, the build-up, anticipation, expectation, and hopes were over. it was real, it exists, it is open, it is there: a real, tangible exhibit, built upon my research and valerio’s collection, supported by the community and local government. there is no more a dream, but rather a reality. i curated an exhibit - and you can go see it!
read all about it
