Ecomuseum of the Upper Maira Valley (Cuneo)

An ecomuseum spread across the territory, telling the story of the old travelling trades and drawing its youngest visitors right into the heart of it.

A crossroads for the many peoples who arrived in Italy over the mountain passes, Piedmont has, in every age, been shaped by a rich history of cultural and commercial exchange: the multimedia stations set up across the various museum sites invite tourists and school groups to step into every tale told by epic figures such as the cooper, the cloth seller or the anchovy trader. These are the exploits of characters who really did live in the Upper Maira Valley in the nineteenth century, inventing travelling trades that would allow them to support their families.

Designed for an international audience, the installations recount the journeys these men undertook, inviting visitors to enter their own name and home town and to choose how they look, thus becoming an active part of a narrative rendered in the universal language of pencil drawing. Each book can be leafed through digitally simply by moving your fingers across the screen, while the narrating voice, available in Italian, Occitan, English and French, follows every page precisely.

Client: Municipality of Macra, Municipality of Celle di Macra, Municipality of Prazzo (Cuneo)

Location: Museum of Hemp and Women’s Work, Seles Multimedia Museum, “I Bottai” Visitor Point