The Other Mountain. The Dolomites of Silence is an action-research project that uses participatory methodologies to involve the communities that live in mountain villages and proposes new tourism communication initiatives, based on the recognition of the identifying elements of a place by those who live there. All this, in line with a practice of sustainable tourism, integrated and respectful of the environmental, social and cultural context.

The third edition of the project The Other Mountain. The Dolomites of Silence involved the municipalities of Forni di Sotto (UD) and Claut (PN) and was the result of a collaboration: the anthropological research conducted by ISOIPSE was developed by P A N through site-specific and online artistic interventions.

The idea for the Margen Alpen Adria project was developed in 2013 in the area between the Natisone valleys and the Goriška region, on the border between Italy and Slovenia.

The aim of the project was to document the elements of (dis)connection along the border territories and create a multimedia archive of audio-visual tracks collected along the way, giving them back to the local community in the form of artistic installations.

Spontaneous artistic installations were created from materials found along the way and inspired by chance encounters, as well as by observations and research on the areas that had been crossed. Play was an important aspect in building the installations, created mainly to stimulate the involvement of residents and visitors to the area, and to invite reflection about the nature of the place, especially in relation to the theme of “borders”.

Ljubljana’s Radio Študent, one of the project partners, broadcast the composition on air through the Radia network.

The project consists of multiple audio-visual installations as part of the exhibition L'offensiva di carta. The exhibition ran in spring 2017 at Udine’s City Museum based in the castle and explored the Great War through documents from the Luxardo collection.

What does it mean today to reflect on a historical period such as the First World War? How can these reflections be translated into sound, music and images?

These are some of the questions behind the composition work, which takes the form of various installations. The main one is in the Parliamentary Hall, decorated from floor to ceiling with frescoes by Pomponio Amalteo, celebrating the Venetian troops in battle against the Turks in the mid-16th century.

Canadian illustrator Joe Sacco’s frescoes and comic, “The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme: An Illustrated Panorama,” were the two main visual subjects through which the audio-visual composition created points of connection and contrast, bringing two apparently distant dimensions closer together.

Naši zvoni [Our Bells] is the name of the performance presented at the second edition of the festival “Valli del Natisone - Through Landscape” in 2017 inside the Cave of San Giovanni d’Antro. The performance tells the story of the encounter between the spontaneous singers Nediški Puobi from Cicigolis and the group The Mechanical Tales.

Regular meetings between the singers and musicians brought together the choir’s spontaneous singing and the band’s experimental music over several months, culminating in a performance showcasing this musical encounter. The performance is broadcast from several parts of the cave, converging in the space, as spectators move around freely.

The cave, a magical place of worship since pre-Christian times, provides a standpoint offering views in two directions. The first is up towards the sky. In the past, the cave was also used as an observatory, as well as a lookout point for territorial defence. The second is inwards into the bowls, where a vast and, in part, unknown underground space lies waiting to be explored.

RI/RS is the inscription on the border markings made of wood between the Republic of Italy (RI) and the Republic of Slovenia (RS). It is also the name of the multi-site exhibition and audio-visual performance presented in Drenchia, as part of the project “Valli del Natisone – Through Landscape” in 2016.

The project combines the exploration of sound put together by The Mechanical Tales and a series of images created by artist Eleonora Sovrani. At the heart of the project are the people who live, work or just pass through the area between the Natisone Valleys and Slovenia.

The research involved exploring the areas around the Italian-Slovenian border, especially small villages, now almost completely deserted. The few local inhabitants left were heard, along with local historians, so as to situate the personal accounts within a broader historical context.

As part of the multi-site exhibition, portraits of mirrored landscapes and architectures have been included, organically, in the corresponding landscape on the other side of the border. The aim is to call into question the meaning of the word “border” and its abstraction.

Panoramic Observatory is a temporary piece of architecture made of wood. From this pavilion, you can contemplate the vast region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and all of its unique qualities.

From Mount Kolovrat on the border between Italy and Slovenia, the view extends all the way down to the sea, framing the horizon to the south and the Alps with Mount Krn to the north. The space feels intimate, like a visual telescope from which to take in the beauty of the landscape.

The architecture blends into the natural surroundings, mutating with the seasons and as the wood reacts to the changing climate.

Its location on the border, looking out over two different lands – Italy and Slovenia – is also designed to make us reflect on the relationship between the two peoples.