“GEM – Genius Loci, Memory and Identity”, a Community-driven Project for Pionta Park in Arezzo

 

The Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences (DISPOC) leads a participative urban regeneration process of Pionta park in Arezzo aiming to valorize and interpret the existing architectural,
landscape and natural heritage, tangible and intangible values of this cultural place together with the existing historical archive of former psychiatric hospital of Arezzo.
GEM is the name of the project, the acronym of “Genius loci, memoria e identità: Realizzare un presidio culturale nel Parco del Pionta”.

Prof. Francesca Bianchi, the coordinator of the project GEM, highlights that “The primary aim of GEM is to raise awareness of uncared parts and aspects of Pionta using ‘care’ as a guiding principle to develop more comprehensive and holistic valorization of this marginal heritage site that is extremely confined and segregated from the city of Arezzo.”

Heritage as a matter of care – The main objective of the GEM is to valorize marginal heritage of Pionta and forgotten archival documents promoting their access and visibility to the citizens through community involvement who inhabit daily in Pionta. The project offers valuable inputs to the new collective caring practices by empowering the local community of Pionta for how to care collectively their urban and daily environment which also helps participants to be a citizen scientist in storytelling, digital and attractive ways of heritage communication. The project foresees a series of participatively conducted new caring practices in different forms varying from storytelling, performative and digital arts, seminars, and meetings by which each participant is expected to be a curatorial actor by involving into ‘caring’ while reactivating the memory of the place.

 

Research and Community-led Urban Regeneration – The project GEM deals with Pionta as one of the marginal and segregated cultural places of Arezzo due to its recent past associated to the mental illness and former psychiatric hospital. The current ownership status of this cultural place is shared by four important actors: ASL -Local Health Authority of the Tuscany region, Province of Arezzo, -Comune- Municipality of Arezzo, and the University of Siena. Pionta covers eighteen hectares of area with more than twenty-five buildings constructed and developed in ‘village model’ based on the no restraint movement raised in the 19 th century, and it has immense greenery and recreational zones as a huge campus. The site acts as an appropriate laboratory to study thenew culture of care, de-institutionalization, re institutionalization and issues related to multi-actors sharing a cultural property and ownership complexities, as well as problems in the means of public use and public benefit of a cultural place. The overarching goal of the project GEM is to co-develop new urban caring practices that show how new narratives developed by local community have reshaped the pre-existing image of the place that has been associated to its unsettling memories derived from its past.

 

The use of creative, digital and artistic methodologies in heritage communication – The project GEM integrates research on social sciences with digital, creative and artistic methodologies, also thanks to the expert partners, namely, Design Institutes (ISIA) of Florence and Florence-based theatre collective Chille de la balanza. Within the scope of the project GEM, new caring practices are developed with/by participants and the local community of Pionta who will also explore how to use creative, digital and artistic tools for reconsidering heritage as a driver of sustainability to shape/reshape collective memory, values of the area as well as physical environment, cultural and natural heritage of Pionta.

The research group – The Project GEM is led by a research group with complementary expertise in different areas of social science. The research equipe is composed of Prof. Francesca Bianchi -Associated professor in sociology specialized in creative methods in social research and urban social regeneration process-, Prof. Carlo Orefice -Associated Professor in pedagogy, he focuses on theories and methods of educational sciences-, Prof. Sebastiano Roberto -Associated Professor in Architectural History, he works in regenerative architectures and urban spaces-, Prof. Mario Giampaolo -Associated Professor in didactic with an expertise in digital educational tools-, Dr. Gozde Yildiz -Architect and Research Fellow of the project GEM, her research interests focus on genius loci and heritage-driven urban regeneration processes.
The project, lasting a two- year period between 2022-2024, has three partners comprising Design Institute (ISIA) of Florence, Florence-based theatre collective – Chille de la balanza, and Province of Arezzo.

 

This project is co-funded by the European Development and Cohesion Fund and is part of Giovanisì, the project promoted by Regione Toscana to help young people become independent

To know more about the project: https://www.smartcampus.it/gem/.

 

The video represents the introductory experience to drive the audience’s empathy towards the exhibition titled as ‘Siamo tutte Elettra’ where various historical materials were interpreted in different design languages by the design students of ISIAFI.