Pescina

Social Change in a Rural Town With a Fascist Past in Abruzzo, Italy

Jane Katharina di Renzo, Alina Fedorenko, Andreas Günther, Lukas Hersemeyer, Urte Kaunas, David Maharam, Daniela Sanchez

In September 2013, a group of photography students at the BTK University of Applied Sciences travelled to Pescina, a small town in Abruzzo, Italy. Pescina is the birthplace of the Italian writer Ignazio Silone, whose bestseller Fontamara, published in 1930, described the hard lives of the farmers there and the emergence of fascism. Today, Pescina is an average rural town in Italy outside the reach of the usual tourism. It suffers from problems typical of many European agrarian regions: unemployment, migration to the cities, vacant buildings, xenophobia, and right-wing nationalist tendencies. Whether in Brandenburg, Germany, or in Abruzzo, small towns and villages can seem like abandoned cocoons of a once bustling life. During the ten-day trip, the students had the opportunity to take a good look at various aspects of life in Pescina.