Title : Escaping capitalist structures in France and Italy
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Escaping capitalist structures in France and Italy
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La Zone à Défendre (The Zone to be Defended)
La Zone à Défendre, informally known as ZAD, is in Notre-Dame-des-Landes in the west of France. The community formed six years ago to prevent the construction of an airport. Its inhabitants govern collectively and aspire to live autonomously, farming and living off the land. They live in abandoned farm buildings and handmade structures built in the fields and forests, the forms resembling patchwork sculptures.
In January the government announced that the airport would no longer be built. The ‘Zadists’, however, remained. The State has threatened to evict them. There have been both peaceful protest and violent clashes between the police and activists at the site and in Nantes. The community’s future is being debated by the French government.
We arrived at the ZAD through the Rue d’Barracade, a long country road reinforced with piles of stone and barricades, decorated in spray-painted slogans. Ramshackle buildings, burnt out and operational cars, and scrap ammunition line the road. Down the road we reach the first gatehouse, a tall wooden tower rises from the hedgerow (see the drawing at the top).
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Construction of La Ambassada |
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Rainy morning La Wardine |
There was a jam session (above) at La Boîte Noire on the east side of the ZAD. Many people gathered to play, drink, laugh and eat. At one point a complete leg of mutton was produced, charred but tender on the inside. I ended the night sleeping in the grass outside of a friend’s van until the chill of the early morning woke me. In this part of the ZAD there is no running water or electricity.
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Jamming at Bellvue |
On the night of the full moon as I was walking along Rue d’Barracade (above), I was told to stop for pizza. A few of the Italian inhabitants had organised a pizza evening. With plenty of dough and vegetables, pizzas began flying out from the handmade clay pizza oven. Madness brewed as a crowd gathered, there was the sound of a guitar, of people rapping and conversing. The pizza chef shouted, "Pizza per la luna!" Donations were given for flour. At one point a car drove past with a man on top of the bonnet clinging to the windscreen, shouting and laughing as they went.
Il Comunitario di Elfi (The Community of Elves)
The second community I visited is named Elfi or Il Comunitario di Elfi. It is in the Pistoia Mountains of Tuscany, Italy. This community was established around 40 years ago from a series of small villages that had been abandoned in the 1900s. Surrounded by forest, the villages are linked by snaking paths to create a community.
The lifestyle varies from village to village and mixes aspects of traditional living with modern. Most practice self-sufficient farming—animals and crops. The people share anything that is needed between villages. The surrounding forest and their gardens are very biodiverse. The community felt almost medieval.
I stayed for a month, travelling between families and villages, taking part in the life and festivities and documenting some of the villages and happenings in sketches.
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Piccolo Burrone |
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Piccolo Burrone |
One night a pizza party was held to welcome the return of two children. The pizza cooking was like a military operation where constant pizza flew out of the oven at an extreme velocity. In fact all the work in Piccolo Burone was conducted at a very fast pace, with jobs constantly changing. This is what was needed to keep the place running; it was fuelled by the characters of the people who lived there.
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Campo Mascherine, pizza kitchen |
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Campo Mascherine, festa |
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La Scuola |
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Gran’ Burrone |
Insect life throughout Elfi thrived and their presence felt very harmonic with the life there. I would sit surrounded by wasps sipping spilt rose juice off a table, they buzzed around lazily without a care and I neither, unless they fell into the liquid and needed saving. The hills were filled with fireflies at night; I saw bees which were black with blue wings and also a snail as large as a fist with pink and beige tones to its shell. These unusually fantastic animals added an air of magic to the community, magic that springs from the earth, that of elves.
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Gran’ Burrone |
Thomas Carroll-Brentnall is a third year Illustration student at Cardiff School of Art and Design. You can see more of Tom's work on his website or Instagram.
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