Dolomites Caring for the Environment

«The wonder of the Dolomites still surfaces in human beings today, wherever they are cradled by the scenery. And when we leave the chaotic but organized and predictable metropolis, it can happen that we stare out over a precipice just as people did at the beginning of it all, onto a landscape that we can embrace with the gaze in the same way that we hug someone we once loved and have not seen for ages». Antonio G. Bortoluzzi

A complex and majestic archipelago of peaks, both magnificent and fragile, which draws the eye to surprise, wonder and enchantment: these are the Dolomites, a unique and precious natural mosaic, among the most extraordinary in the world. Not just a landscape to admire, but a heritage to be guarded with care, respect and responsibility.

The volume Dolomites. Caring for the Environment, edited by the Regione del Veneto and Marsilio Arte, explores the unique Dolomite landscape through its union with man, a delicate, conscious and possible coexistence.
The splendid photographs by Manuel Cicchetti, accompanied by the words of Antonio G. Bortoluzzi, reveal this balance between natural majesty and human presence, in a visual and literary journey that guides the reader through the discovery of places that have been inhabited, shaped and protected by man, where nature and culture come together in a harmonious and constantly evolving relationship.

Manuel Cicchetti’s pictures represent the visual heart of this narration.
His attentive and respectful sight not only captures the wonder and grandeur of the Dolomite panoramas, but also reinterprets them in a profoundly social key, emphasising the signs of human presence: a path carved into the rock, a dwelling set in the valley, a high mountain road. His photographs, the result of meticulous research conducted on the territory, reveal the delicate harmony between the trace of time and the work of man, between persistence and transformation, in the flow of the seasons. They also recount the evolution that the people of the highlands have carried out over the last century, developing a network that has marked nature and places with materials, metals and lines that have never been characteristic of these altitudes.

The words of Antonio G. Bortoluzzi enhance and deepen this visual narrative, delving into the memory and traditions of the Dolomite communities. His texts give voice to an ancient knowledge, made up of measured gestures and relationships based on responsibility. They are stories of daily life, of toil, of work in the fields and along the slopes, of silent care for a fragile environment that requires constant attention. With a refined yet profound style, Bortoluzzi invites us to observe these places with new eyes, recognising in the balance between discovery and protection the key to imagining a sustainable future.

The book constitutes the third chapter of the series dedicated to the UNESCO sites of the Regione del Veneto (The Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene; Venice and its Lagoon), offering the public an unprecedented, contemporary and emotional narrative that has the capacity to convey that sense of wonder we all need to return to loving our landscapes and caring for them.

The publication is accompanied by a diffuse exhibition, featuring photographs by Manuel Cicchetti and texts by Antonio G. Bortoluzzi. The travelling exhibition will start from Cortina d’Ampezzo, in a tour that will successively involve the ‘portrayed’ territories.

Antonio G. Bortoluzzi, writer, was born in 1965 in Alpago, Belluno, where he lives. In 2017 he won the Gambrinus-Giuseppe Mazzotti Montagna cultura e civiltà Prize with Paesi alti (Biblioteca dell’Immagine). With Marsilio he published Come si fanno le cose (2019), from which the homonymous play was adapted, and Il saldatore del Vajont (2023), with which he won the Coop Alleanza 3.0 Prize. He is an academic of the Italian Mountain Writers Group (GISM) and writes for numerous newspapers and magazines.

Manuel Cicchetti was born in 1969 and has worked in photography for music and theatre. His works have appeared in national newspapers and magazines, including Corriere della Sera, Repubblica, Panorama. He has published Monocrome. Camminando tra le Dolomiti d’Ampezzo (2018), Vaia, viaggio consapevole dentro un disastro (2021), Tempo Intermedio (2022).