IL TEMPO DELLA SOSTA. Transhumance within the Murgia Materana: Panorama, Tradition and Work.

“Il Tempo della Sosta” is a cultural challenge promoted by Studio Arti Visive APS/ETS. It explores transhumance within the Murgia Materana via images, analysis and public dialogue.
Transhumance isn’t merely the seasonal motion of animals alongside historical pastoral routes. It is a dwelling heritage made of information, practices, work and relationships, developed over time via the connection between individuals, animals and the territory. It is a manner of understanding the panorama that brings collectively materials tradition, collective reminiscence and environmental care.

The challenge relies on a central thought: transhumance gives a unique manner of experiencing time. It is a gradual and cyclical time, linked to the seasons, nature and information of locations. In this context, the cease isn’t merely a pause, however an important second of care, relationships and transmission of information.
The jazzi, farmhouses, fountains, tratturi and different resting locations are areas the place, for hundreds of years, individuals, animals, communities and information have met. They are locations of labor, but in addition locations of encounter, change and the creation of collective reminiscence.

The photographic exhibition presents the work of Pietro L’Annunziata, the results of an extended technique of statement of the pastoral lifetime of the Murgia Materana.
Through black-and-white images, the artist avoids a folkloric or nostalgic illustration of pastoral life. Instead, he portrays a dwelling actuality formed by work, effort, information and a way of belonging.
The pictures present the routes of transhumance, the connection between shepherds and animals, the resting locations, rural structure, working instruments and the panorama of the Murgia.
The panorama isn’t introduced as a easy background, however as an lively a part of the story. The pictures present a territory formed over time by the interplay between nature and human exercise.
Photography due to this fact turns into a device for information and care: to doc means to acknowledge the worth of a fragile actuality and contribute to preserving its reminiscence.

Today, transhumance is a type of heritage with each a fabric and an intangible dimension. Its materials heritage contains tratturi, jazzi, farmhouses, fountains and rural structure. Its intangible heritage contains pastoral information, strategies, practices, tales and traditions handed down via generations.
It can also be a up to date heritage, able to partaking with a few of the key problems with our time: environmental sustainability, biodiversity safety, the administration of rural territories, the problem of depopulation in inland areas and the seek for new fashions of territorial improvement.

Inscribed in 2019 on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, transhumance is due to this fact introduced not as a apply belonging solely to the previous, however as a type of information that may nonetheless generate consciousness and new views for the longer term.

The challenge takes on explicit significance in 2026, coinciding with vital cultural and worldwide occasions.
It displays Matera’s position as a spot of encounter between cultures, communities and completely different types of heritage. Transhumance is, in actual fact, deeply rooted in Mediterranean historical past. For centuries, it linked territories and communities via routes of motion, change of information and relationships. 2026 can also be the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, promoted by the United Nations and the FAO. This worldwide initiative highlights the position of pastoralism in defending ecosystems, conserving biodiversity and managing territories sustainably.

The exhibition can also be a part of the European Heritage Days 2026, in reference to the theme Heritage at Risk: Revive, Resist, Reimagine. Transhumance thus turns into a concrete instance of how heritage in danger may be understood, valued and reworked right into a useful resource for the longer term.

How can we rework a heritage of the previous right into a useful resource for the longer term?
The reply lies within the very that means of the cease. To cease doesn’t imply to interrupt the journey, however to acknowledge what makes it potential: care, time, relationships, information and a reference to locations.
Transhumance reminds us that territories will not be merely areas to cross, however locations to inhabit and defend. Every panorama preserves a narrative product of steps, encounters and pauses.

“Il Tempo della Sosta” is the second when a group acknowledges what it desires to protect with a purpose to form the longer term.