In the midst of thinking about transformation and community as key ingridients of our wellbeing and mental health, a case study appeared out of the blue. When booking a place to sleep during the two-day drive to carry out a secondment in Barcelona, my partner and I stumbled upon a hidden jewel. The most unexpected encounter occurred, when we got lost in the north-western region of Liguria, Italy, trying to find "this village called Bussana Vecchia on top of a hill next to Sanremo where we booked an apartment for a night". After ten hours on the road and being illiterate in Italian, a friendly man Maks, who spoke Serbo-Croatian and Nino, the owner of the apartment offered to pick us up with an old Piaggio truck.

The road was steep and narrow, but my partner and I (and our dog) immediately felt safe and mesmerized by the view that opened before us. The town on top of a hill was tiny, but every corner had an artistic note to it. We slowly began to hear the story of Bussana Vecchia, a ghost town brought to life by an international group of artists from all over the world. The story began to unfold while admiring this scene of an old church of Saint Giles with its collapsed roof never being restored, still showing traces of the original stuccos and paintings.

In 1887, the village suffered a grave earthquake that killed roughly one eight of the village’s residents. The authorities prohibited access to the village due to safety issues and built a new town Bussana Nouva next to the sea. The old village was abandoned, left in ruins to decay for nearly a century.

At the end of the forties, immigrants from southern Italy started "illegally" settling the ghost town. After a few forced evictions by the Italian police in the 1950s, the authorities ordered the destruction of all first-floor stairways and rooftops which only brought more strength to immigrants rebuilding the ruins. In 1959, the International artists’ community of Bussana Vecchia was established. The spirit of the organization was "to be able to live simply and to work artistically within the village".

Even though the settlement had no electricity, tap water, or sanitation, the new community of inhabitants grew from the small original nucleus to around thirty people by 1968, mostly hippie artists coming from all over Europe (Italy, Austria, England, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden). During the 1970s, the sewage system and electricity were restored, and today this village functions entirely thanks to its crafty inhabitants, who now manage small galleries along the paved streets.

To add another gem to this story, we found a magical place in the middle of the town. It is called La Barca and it is an artistic commune, where the whole idea is that everything in it belongs to the people. The fridge is always full, and you will always find a free bed in between memorabilia from all over the world. Chickens, ducks, a pig named Bo and piglettes walking around are not an unusual sight, and there are also smart installations such as a former delivery truck that has been transformed into a "bed" with flowers. We had lunch together and when it was time to say goodbye, they invited us to sleep over on our way back from Barcelona. We will most certainly do that.

One must admit, that the "Bussanesi" are tough. Since 1979, the residents have been fighting a legal battle with the Italian authorities that wanted to deny them their rights of "Usucapione" (Squatters rights) and evict them. After 20 years of uncontested occupancy, they should by law be allowed to stay in (but not own) their properties. In December 2017, the Italian Department of State Property sent tax settlements of tens of thousands of euros to all the inhabitants and termed them "occupiers". Fear arose within the village that people might lose their homes, which they had rebuilt from ruins.

Even though the legal position is not yet clarified, one thing is clear as the sky: the community of artists and craftsmen, who live and work in Bussana Vecchia, have transformed it into what it is today - an oasis of creativity, a unique and inspiring place in the world.

Written by Dr. Maja Gostič (ZRC SAZU)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A link to a short documentary Bussana Resilient | Art in Ruins, 2019