ABOUT THIS EXHIBITION

'Donne di Montagna' presents a collection of photographs picturing the main activities women are usually involved in in the Alps of Valtellina and Valchiavenna.
In particular, the exhibition focuses on the importance of the feminine role for making the local culture and traditional activities survive, as well as for protecting the mountain environment and typical landscapes.
The photographs portray women at work. The setting is the mountains, where adverse conditions often make most activities hard to deal with. These women have been able to exploit the local natural resources, nevertheless taking care of the environment.
There are towns and villages in the mountains, often far away from the big lines of communication, where women have always been supporting the importance of the feminine role in the local culture and society. They have always managed by themselves because most of times men emigrated overseas, went off to war or had to work far from home.
The exhibition shows a number of rural activities that are still today taken care of by women.
Endowed with great spirit of initiative and dynamism, women are often crucial actors within the alpine micro economy.
The future of the Alps now seems to be up to women. Most mountain traditions and typical products would probably disappear without their presence and their labour.

How long will women be walking up and down from the mountain paths carrying heavy panniers on their shoulders?
How long will they be working in dairy farms in the alpine pastures? How long will elderly women be spinning by hand with reels and wool-winders? And how long will they be sieving chestnuts?
With pictures capturing partial views of the alpine landscape, as well as moments of the everyday activities women have been traditionally involved in over the past years, 'Donne di Montagna' is an authentic photo reportage on life in our mountains.
This exhibition is also about the alpine culture and traditions, which have lasted over the centuries in harmony with the economic and social development of these areas, as well as with the mountain environment and fragile ecosystem.

MAIN TOPICS

Below are the subjects of the photographs by Gianpiero Mazzoni

1. tilling
2. haymaking
3. dairying
4. chestnuts
5. weaving
6. transports
7. livestock
8. the environment, cottage rooms and objects
9. family
10. religion

Tilling
Fields, cattle, dairy produce. These few keywords identify the main activities that have always been strictly necessary to human survival in the mountains over the past centuries. These activities are still today carried out just in the same way as they used to do in the past.
Soil tilling often requires skilled labour.
The pictures portraying women at work in the field focus once more on the importance of the feminine labour. Women dealing with the periodical fertilization with manure, carrying panniers with manure on their shoulders, then scattering it on the soil by hand. Fertilizing, just like potato growing, in fact, involves women in a sort of symbiosis with nature around them.
Some images portray women picking up leaves in the wood. This activity is part of a biological cycle, which involves also periodical soil tilling and fertilizing.

Haymaking
The images in this section portray women at work during the haymaking period. Women had a crucial role, as most of times their husbands could not help them. Haylofts were often far from the meadows so they had to carry heavy panniers with hay on their shoulders to provide food for the livestock during winter.
The pictures show moments of the haymaking, with women steadily at work from the harvesting until the natural drying process, which often occurred depending on the weather conditions.

Dairying
Dairying involves a sequence of skilled actions women have always been performing with the utmost care to obtain the typical dairy products representing the basic foodstuff for the family. The images in this section portray women at work with the traditional tools used during the dairying process. Some images portray women carrying milk inside aluminium buckets, which were used to keep its organoleptic features intact.

Chestnuts
Chestnuts have been a basic food for people in the mountains over the past years.
Chestnut trees, which often grew wild in the mountains, provided foodstuff for the inhabitants of those areas. After picking the chestnuts, the fruits joined a chain of production, which consisted of various stages, including a long drying period. Chestnuts were then prepared for eating thanks in particular to the feminine labour. The images portray the stages of production (e.g. women sieving chestnuts , women dealing with an accurate selection of produce)

Weaving
The images in this section portray women involved in the traditional weaving activity. Photographs of girls making the 'Pezzotto', that is a typical rug made in the Alpi Orobie. An obsolete activity, which has now been recovered to promote the alpine culture thanks to the feminine skilled labour .
Along with the Pezzotto making, other images show spinners involved in hemp weaving with the traditional techniques and machines used to make hemp cloths and yarns.

Transports
Over the past years, the steep and broad paths in the mountains have always forced people to walk with heavy burdens on their shoulders
The images in this section portray women carrying panniers with manure, wood, hay or leaves, buckets with milk, rucksacks with food.
These pictures show their exceptional strength and great determination.

Livestock
Women who live in the mountain areas still have a close relationship with animals. To obtain milk, they have to take a particular care of cattle.
The images in this section portray women taking care of animals and moments of the cattle breeding. One captures the killing of a pig, and shows the great importance of the feminine presence in helping this stage of the farming activity.
Other images portray women milking cows and goats, or taking care of sheep and barnyard animals

The environment, cottage rooms and objects
The images in this section portray some views of the alpine landscape, along with views of cottage rooms with objects of the everyday life that seem to speak a strongly evocative and affectionate language.
On the other hand, the landscape around seems rather bare and lonely, as villages and streets would appear without people and, most of all, without women enlivening them.

Family
The images in this section portray women in the family environment. In addition to doing the housework, tilling, dairying, milking and other activities women had to take care of their family and children.
The pictures capture moments of the family life with women looking after children, cooking lunch and taking care of the housewifery. Undoubtedly, activities which required much more time than a eight-hour working day.

Religion
People living in the mountains have always been deeply religious. Still today, in fact, some features of the mountain areas show the deep piety which characterizes the inhabitants.
There is a church with its bell tower in each village. Each village has its patron saint, graveyard, religious songs and customs.