Humans did not decide to settle in cities, sweat in farms, initiate trade and markets, discover political power, mint coins, wage wars to conquer land, and develop complex systems of communication because they liked a particular scenery or just because they were tired of nomadic life.
They did it because of one single natural process called fermentation, that they started practicing at some point in the Neolithic and never stopped using and refining.
Fermentation links brains, hands, tools, nature. Over millennia of practice it has become a science mastered by industries and individuals involved in beverages and food. Fermentation is also associated with the excitement created by social and intellectual interactions involving individuals attempting to change the substance of societies.
While healing from COVID-19, humans have new motivations to master these linkages in unprecedented ways. Maybe more than we had anticipated, fermentation and its products become part of the solution to fundamental and urgent needs of individuals and societies.
This is why we want and need to bring together the fermenters of today to reflect on the meaning of their activity, what makes them unique, what they have in common and how fermentation will keep shaping the way we eat, drink, create and live together.
The theater of this innovative experiment of cross fertilisation is the “countryside”, understood as the space where - more than in cities - radical forms of change are already taking place, with large scale use of genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, robotic automation, economic innovation, worker migration, and all sorts of intensive interactions between human and nonhuman ecosystems.
Our own region of Abruzzo, as one of the most important wine producing regions in Europe and its rich biodiversity lands itself ideally to host such experiences.
For 2022, Dentro La Terra will become a residence in fermentation and explore opportunities to bring together culture/art and sustainability, creating opportunities for exchanges that promote processes and practices where humans and nature cooperate to bring meaningful positive transformations.
As we prepare for this, ideas, proposals, comments are welcome via email at dentrolaterra (at) gmail.com