This presentation contextualises the citizen initiative Montagna Viva, which in the Northern Apennines (Italy) experiments with "making in common" as a way to face the problems of the social and ecological crises. The association has grown out of activities proposed by commons theorists and activists Massimo de Angelis and Dagmar Diesner. It is linked to this paper: bit.ly/1KIsY1t

2. Montagna Viva, The Living Mountain:
Conversing with an experiment in
making (the local) in common
Fabio Franz
Sheffield School of Architecture
Bianca Elzenbaumer
Leeds College of Art
www.brave-new-alps.com

3. Building Radical Localities / COMUNfARE
Fostering non-capitalist spaces outside
the metropolis through popular design and
making (economies) in common
Vallagarina district, southern Alps, Italy
since October 2014

6. Montagna Viva
associazione per il fare in comune
The Living Mountain
association for making in common
Monchio, northern Apennines, Italy
since 2009

9. “In our mountains we construct on that
which remains of a culture of solidarity
and love for the soil, in order to experiment
with new forms of economy, agriculture
and culture. We do so by digging into local
memory but also by opening up to the
memories and knowledges of other peoples.”

10. Massimo De Angelis & Dagmar Diesner
commoner.org.uk

11. “Our daily bread” - performance by The Living Theatre group (2010)
“Women of the world: between crises and the commons” (2011)
“Mother Earth” - contribution to the local scarecrow competition (2013)
Restoration of the old lavatory in Lama di Monchio (2012)

12. “The Abundance, the mountain’s community garden” (2011-ongoing)

15. Community as a “web of direct relations
among subjects whose repetitive
engagement and feedback processes allow
them, through conflict and/or cooperation,
to define the norms of their interaction
on the basis of other values than those of
capital.”

16. “Making in common is our philosophy
to face the big problems of the crises
we are going through and that are the
effect of a world that is unjust, unequal
and dominated by the making of profits.
(...) Making in common is the means this
association uses.”

17. Commons and practices of commoning,
as a material and social dimension that
empowers people to cultivate other values
and ways of relating to each other/to nature
than the ones embodied and reproduced
by capital.

18. Fostering an ethos of permanent research
and experimentation

19. Fostering an ethos of permanent research
and experimentation
Working towards a nourishing
interpretation of buen vivir

20. Fostering an ethos of permanent research
and experimentation
Working towards a nourishing
interpretation of buen vivir
Experimenting with the agency of the local
to speak and act back