The Matera EuropeanCapital of Culture 2019 candidature bid book foresees a number of projects that are to be carried out by the Matera - Basilicata 2019 Foundationin co-creation with the Lucanian creative scene.
Casa Netural is one of the 31 Lucanian creative realities chosen as Project Leaders to design and develop the bid book projects together with the Foundation, and more specifically is working on the co-creation of a project regarding food within the Roots and routes theme of the bid book.

Among the various tools foreseen in the co-creation process (meetings, workshops, mentoring), we have the "go&see": a voucher to go to Europe, in search of encounters and sources of inspiration; to forge new relationships and partnerships.

We at Casa Neturalhad our first "go&see" in Ganges, in southern France, to meet John Thackara, our European project partner. Part of the IdLab team was also with us, project partner in charge of the communication and digital aspects. It was a meeting of discovery and knowledge.

Discovery of a territory that has many affinities with Matera, and in general, with Lucania; knowledge of the many projects that, at European level, are designing new models of community and local development by enabling forms of circular economy.
Projects in line with the goal that Casa Netural has set for 2019: to use food, a catalyst of cultural identities, to build relationships of proximity between peripheral territories seeking new forms of sustainable development.

Ganges is the "South Gate" of the Causses and Cévennes territory, inscribed in the Unesco World Heritage list in 2011 as a Mediterranean agro-pastoral Cultural Landscape.

There are many affinities with Basilicata: from the geological diversity of the landscapes, to still being a testament of an “ancient” world closely linked to agricultural and pastoral traditions.
In this vast territory we find the last places where they still practice the traditional summer transhumance, a seasonal droving between pastures.
A territory which, like Matera, but, in general, Basilicata, can count on a vast landscape, natural and cultural heritage to be valued, developed, and at the same time preserved.
Beautiful places, rich in history and traditions, which invest on their heritage to no longer be "economic peripheries" but "European economic provinces": places where you can live, produce and make economy, without traumas, and preserving quality of life.

If Ganges was the door to discover a territory so akin to Basilicata, John Thackara was our bridge to meet those who, in those places, organize from the bottom up, to carry out community projects able to draw a sustainable economic development in the region.

John Thackara, English philosopher and journalist, has been living in Ganges for several years.
He was the founder of "Doors of Perception", a programme of conferences where, for the first time, a connection was created between the world of design and the environmental movement. John Thackara continues to work on his research and writing with the objective of deepening this relationship, to find new solutions for sustainable development. He is working to foment visibility and networking of all the organizations experimenting with this type of solutions.
John thus introduced us to this world, telling us several stories and describing realities.
We met and got to know Kristi van Riet, Co-Director of Doors of Perception, who shares not only a life with John, but also research work on these issues.
One afternoon during our stay was dedicated to meeting with Elise Boissiere.
Elise lives in a beautiful stone house, in the Cévennes National Park, which has belonged to her family for generations.
Web designer by training, she chose to live in her region of origin and to apply her experience and work to the service of a new development of this area, which, like Basilicata, registers a strong risk of desertification. She is working on networking all the local realities and expertise to design and implement a form of light and environmentally friendly tourism, source of economic sustainability for all affected areas, while preserving environmental and ecological sustainability.
More specifically, Elise works within the municipal administration of Vallerauge and manages two projects in particular: the Meteosite du Mont Aigoual, and Les Ecovoisins for Cévennes Ecotourisme.
The Meteosite, museum and interpretation centre dedicated to meteorology, is the last mountain observatory in France and one of the last in the world.
Les écovoisins is a project to build mini-réseaux of tourist, cultural and economic actors who work together to develop tourist practices based on the values of sharing and respect for the environment and to enable a reflection on possible forms of economic development in a rural area.

Lastly, we collected the testimonies of other "non-French" individuals, who like John and Kristi, live in one of the small towns in this region, bringing content and a European scope into small almostrural realities, chosen for the quality of life they offer:

Walter Tjantele– photographer and cycle tourism expert

Valerie Katz – chef, hotel manager, and wellness tourism expert

Walter and Valerie, in addition to pursuing their professions, own a large and historical house near Ganges, in which they combine tourist and artistic initiatives. In this way, they have made their Maison du Pont Vieux into a point of reference and of building proximity relationships at local and European level.

Our "go&see" in southern France ended with a bang, with a visit to Arles and Luma Arles.
Luma Arles was launched in 2013 by Maja Hoffmann – president and founder, in 2004, of the Luma Foundation – to design, develop and manage the "Parc des Ateliers", a large industrial area which has been converted into a cultural institution that hosts the various activities of the Luma Foundation.
What really impacted us is that Luma Arles aims to be an ecosystem where culture and the environment are interconnected in research and in the activation of a circular economy that starts from the use of local natural resources to return to the territory.
In its programming Luma Arles has implemented the "Cuisine des Forges" project, motivated by the belief that cooking is a universal way of sharing and promoting interpersonal and cross-cultural exchange.
We also visited there, with great interest, the Atelier Luma; the exhibition dedicated to the photographic archives of Annie Leibovitz: "Annie Leibovitz The Early Years: 1970-1983. Archive Project #1"; "The Visible World" an installation created by Peter Fischli and David Weiss.

To conclude, a long journey home which, between bad weather, delays and a long wait at the airport, got us home at 3 o’clock in the morning.
We were undoubtedly tired upon our return but completely satisfied with the experience. 
Besides the beauty of the places we visited and the intensity of the meetings, we brought home living testimony of "peripheral" areas which, thanks to projects and communities built around the development of natural and cultural heritage are claiming European citizenship anew.

Casa Netural