During the COVID-19 lockdown, people flocked to the countryside in search of the rural landscapes and the self-absorbed communities they had seen in movies or remembered vaguely from their childhood. They discovered a dynamic and diverse space, an elusive new rurality - an aging population living in isolation, a dwindling economy humbly reanimated by the growing dependence of cities upon the countryside, a massive abandonment of the built fabric.
As part of the Erasmus+ New Ruralites (NERU) symposium, Whispering books is an invitation to step beyond the city walls—on a reflexive journey through books. With the complicity of the CIVA librarian, Whispering Books invites visitors to consult a curated miscellany of publications from CIVA’s collection and beyond.
The selection offers a glimpse into a wide range of historic and contemporary rural spaces—the infrastructures that traverse them, the communities rooted within them, and the emerging proposals that seek to rethink their uses and offer unexpected perspectives on their landscapes. In resonance with the diverse territories and unfolding languages connected by the NERU project, this moment becomes an intimate experience of polyphonic reading, where selected excerpts will be shared aloud, giving voice to multiple landscapes and imaginaries.
