The “Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards” have been awarded for three years to companies, start-ups and communities that are confronted with the challenges posed by the mountains; the winning projects are then showcased in the exhibition centre housed in the arrivals station of the Lagazuoi cable car at an altitude of 2,732 metres. This year, the award for the “Sustainable tourism in the mountains” section went to the participatory project, “L’Altra Montagna. Le Dolomiti del silenzio” [The Other Mountain. The Dolomites of Silence], born out of the agreement between the University of Udine and the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region as one of the activities of the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation’s functional networks, conceived and implemented by the ISOIPSE Association – Social Enterprise.
When the silence comes to life
“L’Altra Montagna. Le Dolomiti del silenzio” [The Other Mountain. The Dolomites of Silence] is a project that involved the inhabitants of Claut and Forni di Sotto, who were called upon to personally choose which aspects of their land to highlight for a new communication product in line with sustainable, integrated tourism that respects the environmental, social and cultural context. People who frequent the Friulian Dolomites describe them as wild, silent mountains; people who live there wanted to illustrate precisely this aspect, in which the resonance of their own voices, the whispers of the natural surroundings and the characteristic sounds of the region can be heard; they want to gather these sounds together into ten “sound postcards” which add to the fascination characterising the parallel journey that has unfolded in recent years in Forni di Sopra and in Val Còlvera. First place in the “Sustainable Tourism in the Mountains” section is shared with the “Antagonisti di Melle” [Antagonists of Melle] project, created by young people who are revitalising a hamlet of 200 people in the Cuneo area; it is a sign of cohesion that bears witness to the direction in which many valleys, little touched by mass tourism, wish to point their rudder – slow, sustainable tourism that allows people to encounter the authenticity of local communities.
Winning projects on display
The list of winners of the “Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards” is long, and scrolling through it is a journey into the future of the mountains from a socially and environmentally sustainable perspective – technical materials for mountain clothing, appliances that recognise and separate waste autonomously, apps that offer augmented reality experiences, platforms that allow owners of small forest plots to create community and have personalised guidance, and training schools for herders and cheesemakers. The exhibition of the winning projects will be open from June 2022 until March 2023.
Ph. Luciano Gaudenzio