Deep Channel

By Flavia Tomaello, https://flaviatomaello.blog/, Instagram @flavia.tomaello

In some territories of southern Italy, history is not presented as a linear story, but as an underground current that emerges at different points, with changing intensities, as if time had decided not to advance in a straight line. In this area of ​​Salento, this current is perceived in the texture of the stones, in the persistence of the Grika language, in the rituals that survive the centuries without losing their meaning. Nothing seems ready to impress, everything seems ready to stay. La Grecìa Salentina preserves that quality of places that do not need to be explained: just walking around to understand that here memory is not an archive, it is a way of life.

The community has been able to read that legacy with a rare maturity. It is not limited to protecting what is inherited, it turns it into a tool to think about the present. Culture functions as an organizing axis, a language that allows recognition, a space where identity becomes dynamic. This conviction is manifested in the way public projects are designed, in the attention paid to accessibility, in the decision to teach sign language to children as part of their training. “Inclusion is an everyday practice, not an exceptional gesture,” says trustee Valentina Avantaggiato. “We want each inhabitant to be able to inhabit the territory without barriers, visible or invisible.” His words condense a vision that exceeds the administrative.

The Marchesale Palace, with its mix of strength and refinement, has become the epicenter of this transformation. The Popular Music Documentation Center operates there, a project that is not limited to guarding Luigi Chiriatti’s archive, but turns it into a creation space. The recordings, interviews, photographs and ethnographic documents have been organized and digitized so that they can be consulted, studied and reinterpreted. The intention is not to freeze a legacy, but to allow it to continue generating meaning. “An archive must dialogue with those who come to it,” says Avantaggiato. “We wanted this heritage to be able to open paths, not close them.”

The immersive installations created by Massimiliano Siccardi and Raffaela Zizzari take that premise into sensory territory. It is not about illustrating a documentary collection, but about allowing the visitor to enter a universe where ancient voices, the sounds of the countryside, images of the past and the architecture of the palace are intertwined. In the old prisons, where the detainees left their pleas recorded, the artistic intervention does not soften the harshness of the place, it makes it audible. Technology, far from competing with history, illuminates it. The result is an experience that not only informs, but moves.

A territory that projects forward

The municipality’s cultural strategy does not end with heritage recovery. It is articulated with a broader vision that seeks to generate opportunities, strengthen the social fabric and attract a type of traveler who does not consume, but rather dialogues. “We address those who want to understand, not those looking for a quick step,” explains Avantaggiato. This premise has given rise to a series of itineraries that allow you to explore the territory from multiple dimensions: the frantoi ipogei excavated in the rock, the chapels of the Settecento, the Pineta Longa with its social orthos, the historic garden of the Marchesale Palace, the menhirs that still mark the rural landscape.

Each tour functions as a scene in a larger story. In the Frantoi, the history of oil reveals the economy of a time when the land was the center of everything. In the chapels, the passion songs show the spiritual depth of a community that has known how to keep its traditions alive. In Pineta Longa, aromatic plants and peasant stories build a bridge between nature and culture. In the old oven from the 13th century, the ash preserved from the last batch reminds us that daily life is also heritage.

The municipality has managed to articulate these elements into a coherent project that combines cultural policies, educational initiatives, inclusion programs and stimuli for the local economy. The Bando Borghi, the Documentation Center, the bioethics mensa, the Mercato del Giusto and incentives for small businesses are part of the same vision. “Each project must open a path so that the community can continue,” says Avantaggiato. “Sustainability is measured in real opportunities, not in speeches.”

Popular music, which for decades was a symbol of resistance and collective identity, continues to be the common thread of this story. La Notte della Taranta, with its ability to attract thousands of people, is only the most visible expression of a profound work that takes place throughout the year. Culture, here, is not a spectacle, it is a way of life.

In a context where many towns in the Mezzogiorno face the risk of depopulation, this territory has chosen a different narrative. It does not retreat, it projects. He doesn’t give up, imagine. He doesn’t just conserve, he creates. And in that creation he finds his strength. Because a place that is thought about, that is heard, that is cared for and that is narrated, is a place that remains.

This corner of Salento is not offered as a destination, but as an invitation to stop, to listen, to understand. An invitation that, once accepted, continues to resonate long after you have left.