Writers don’t have a monopoly on stories, and extraordinary lives are everywhere. We chose to celebrate them through the affairs of extraordinary men and women, endeavours that, at a superficial glance, might almost seem crazy, but, in reality, are linked by passion: in other words, the wild road - not “wild” in the sense of outside humanity, but rather, ancestral, primitive. The stories that we gathered for this project, organised by Matteo Caccia, straddle the border between two worlds, where nature is tamed, controlled, and, ultimately, enhanced, thanks to the contribution of human beings.
The stars
12 September: Andrea Loreni, Tightrope walker Keeping fear at bay
Walking on a cable several metres above ground to stay close to the most sincere part of us, that which is less well known, less tamed.
12 October: Paolo Pejrone, Landscape painter Nature takes back its spaces
Bringing nature home and leaving our homes to nature. Because we cannot do without making gardens and decorating terraces, to keep the plant world close to us.
12 November: Mauro Berruto, Sports trainer Training the mind
If it’s true that we only use a small part of our mind’s potential, it’s also true that the secret is learning to put it to our service and not dispersing those energies that our body could exploit.
12 December: Ana Roš, Chef Raw materials first
Cultivation, harvest, animal-raising, and processing. How a great chef’s mastery tames the raw materials on the table.
12 January: Emilio Previtali, Explorer The hidden, wild side of each of us
From Nanga Parbat to the hills behind your home. Exploring means freeing your instinct for discovery.
12 February: Ambrogio Beccaria, Navigator Storms and calm waters
In the middle of the water and the wind. Navigating the seas of the world, remaining close to the wildest part of oneself.
12 March: Luca Mercalli, Meteorologist The rage and the sweetness of the climate
We are used to living in a single, constant microclimate: warmed in winter, cooled in summer. But the climate is changing and it will force us to be more honest with ourselves, and with it.
12 April: Mia Canestrini, Wolfologist The return of the wolves
Wolves have returned, or perhaps they never went away. We noticed that when we humans began to lost interest in them, leaving spaces free and intact, the wolves recovered.
12 May: Federica Manzon, Writer Writing is walking on the boards
Writing is a solitary gesture and a wild one that must break the rules of civic decency to free its energy. Writing is not being domestic.
12 June: Tommy Kuti, Musician Untamed music
Rap: the music of the margins, the voice of those who didn’t have a voice. How the words chiselled and set in rhymes and verses free new forces in those who listen.
12 July: Franco Cardini, Historian The region and its history
Can history teach us anything? Can religious history tell us about who we are? Taming the past to understand a present that often escapes us.
12 September: Stefano Bartezzaghi, Semiologist “He who saves himself is savage” (Leonardo da Vinci).
Language grows in us spontaneously, with its fruits, its flowers, its brambles, its poisons. Culture or cultivation: it is trying to order the wood without uprooting and without renouncing the energy that originated it.
