Curated by Giuseppe Castellani, Camillo Gardini, Simone Pizzagalli, Giancarlo Utili, Valter Vannucci. Artistic project by Empresa Creativa.

 

The exhibit was inspired by the encounter of the experience of a group of Calabrese businessmen that took control of an agricultural business, semi-destroyed and impoverished by the exploitation of the person who was managing it before, without being owners. They invest time, money, and energy in a property that is not theirs and that they will have to return. They live these circumstances together, and their life, even when they are alone in their companies, is happier and more fulfilling because they truly don’t feel alone.
They are owners of nothing, and yet they are owners of everything. From their experience, questions arrive to which, in the exhibit, they will try to respond. Can these businessmen be free from that which they have constructed? Is it possibile to earn money, generate places of work and have the experience of “poverty”? And if the true ownership of these things be to love their origins?
When one happens to encounter someone who lives this way, he perceives a difference that attracts him. They are persons that have “more taste”, they have something more that makes the difference. They are indeed: “The salt of the earth”.

The exhibit tells the story of this experience born 17 years ago, and guides the visitor through an immersive tour made of appealing fragrances and images. Through the reconstruction of an orchard, the visitor will come into contact with the fragrances of the native land of these businessmen who will retell their stories through objects characteristic of their reality. They will be the spark to recount the numerous illustrative anecdotes of their long operative friendship.