P | A | N

p i c c i a n e l l o , m a t e r a, b a s i l i c a t a , i t a l y

Making community through bread: A performative re-enactment of the traditional act of bread-making and the use of communal ovens.

P | A | N Matera (2019)

Piccianello, Matera, Basilicata, Italy.

Collaborators:

Catalina Pollak Williamson + Tornitura Massimo Casiello + Panificio Perrone.

Production:

Francesca Ceccotti.

Commissioned by:

Matera Capitale Europea della Cultura 2019 - Murgiamadre for ‘BreadAway, La vie del pane’.

P | A | N (Matera 2019) is a communal bakery that invites the community of Piccianello to bake bread collectively in public space. In the form of a performative street action, the project re-enacts Matera´s old tradition of bread-making and the use of communal ovens, a practice that was common in the Sassi (ancient cave dwellings) until the 1950s.

Piccianello was one of the first social housing experiments build to house the people that was displaced from the Sassi when these were declared unfit for inhabitation during the postwar reconstruction period. Through both, the production of traditional wooden bread stamps as an imprint of identity (a sign to mark ownership of the bread), and the collection of recipes from the participants, the project develops into a social archive that documents the memory of place embedded in the narratives and artefacts of bread-making.

Lastly, P | A | N asks the neighbours of Piccianello whether they would like the municipality to allow for the construction of a communal oven in Piazza Marconi. The collected signatures are then put together as a public petition to the Mayor of Matera.

**“La mia nonna facceva il pane, le pettole e le orechiette. La mia nona viveva nei Sassi. Si sono persi un sacco di cose da quando avviamo lasciato i Sassi.”**

— Sabrina [Participanti #42]. Abita a Piccianello, Matera.

Through the production of traditional wooden bread stamps, and the collection of recipes from the participants, the project develops into a social archive that documents the memory of place embedded in the narratives and artefacts of bread-making.

bread stamps workshop

Bread-stamps were a traditional object in Matera households during times at the Sassi. Carved out of wood with a particular family symbol it was used to stamp the bread before it was baked at communal ovens. It stood for a symbol of identity for each family to recognise their bread once baked.

As part of the project´s process of re-enactment of the old tradition of communal bread-making, bread-stamps were produced as in ancient times.

In collaboration with Tornitura Massimo Casiello we run a workshop with young immigrants recently arrived to Matera and asked them to carve out a symbol of their own identity.

The produced bread-stamps were offered to participants from the Piccianello Quarter to mark their own bread. A postcard with the meaning of each stamp was given as gift.