Poskusno o Benečiji s konceptom odročnosti: migracije in konstrukcija kraja

The article discusses the mountainous area of Slavia Friulana in northeast Italy and its construction through the experience of migrations. Emigration, immigration and other aspects of the area are analysed by using Edwin Ardener’s theory of “remoteness”. Ardener in his definition emphasised that remote places are defined not so much in terms of topographical as topological space, i.e. their phenomenological perception in relation to other places. Remoteness as the experience of a geographical and social position therefore emerges from interactions with the “outside world”, with those who talk about “remote places” from privileged centres where dominant discourses about “Other” people and places are created. Thus, the “outside world” is the locus of self-determination, but also offers numerous havens for “seekers of meaning” from remote areas, which therefore empty. Beyond such theoretical modelling the article offers also historical and ethnographic data on identification and ethnicity, which prompted emigration from the area. It also discusses the Stazione di Topolo arts event which invites artists to live among the locals, whereby the project’s creators wish to encourage the opening up of the place to outsiders. The event is discussed as an event designed to model lived reality to stimulate the production of a more cosmopolitan place, although it evidently breaks with remoteness only provisionally.