TRAMONTANA FORUM
September 24th – 27th, 2025
Arsita (Teramo, Italy)
The second International Forum of the European Tramontana Network project, dedicated to the intangible cultural heritage of European mountains, will take place in Arsita, in the Italian province of Teramo, from September 24th to 27th.
Tramontana Network is an international creative and research network officially established on the occasion of an application to the European Union’s Culture Program, which it was awarded in 2012 with a first project, the result of a long series of preparatory meetings held in Italy, in Abruzzo, and in France, in the Midi-Pyrénées region (later Occitania), between 2010 and 2011.
Since then, it has gone through three further co-financing cycles in the Creative Europe Program—the only project of its kind in Europe—and has now expanded the network to eleven members from seven different countries, operating in Portugal (Binaural Nodar), Spain (Audiolab), France (RĂ dio PaĂs, NumĂ©riculture Gascogne, Eth Ostau ComengĂ©s), Italy (La Leggera APS, LEM-Italia, Bambun APS), Poland (Akademia Profil), Romania (Orma Sodalitas Anthropologica), and Albania (GO2 Albania), in addition to numerous associated partners from all the countries that take part in the project.
The project, based on a strong multidisciplinary approach and diversity of approaches—sociolinguistic, ethnolinguistic, anthropological, ethnomusicological, sound and visual art—and tenaciously inspired by a strong cooperative spirit, has always had as its central objective “the documentation, processing, analysis, restitution, and dissemination, through innovative, participatory, and dynamic means, of the intangible cultural heritage of European rural and mountain societies,” inspired by the principles set forth in the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in Paris on October 17, 2003, by UNESCO, in the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005), both ratified by Italy in 2007, and in the Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society of the Council of Europe (2005), known as the Faro Convention, ratified on September 23, 2020, by the Chamber of Deputies.
After almost fifteen years of existence, Tramontana Network can be defined as a successful attempt at “bringing together the languages and cultures that form the melting pot of Europe,” as a dialectical model of knowledge refined in the concrete dimension of diversity, coexisting and maturing in the daily exercise of proximity, similar to those neighbors who, talking to each other “in their respective gardens,” offer “each other the produce of their gardens, exchanging plants and seeds.” This is how the European Commission, through various bodies, has recently recognized this unique project: with its inclusion in 2018 among the Success Stories of Creative Europe, for its commitment to preserving Europe’s intangible cultural heritage and involving local communities, for its innovative results and creative approach to cultural policies; through the award, in 2020, of the prestigious Grand Prix of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards for the “research” category, as best practice in the preservation of European intangible cultural heritage and “an excellent example of international cooperation between researchers with experience in different fields of study.”
The International Forum, coordinated by Bambun APS in collaboration with the LEM-Italia association, the Municipality of Arsita, and the Altofino Association, also supported by Itaca ETS, returns to Arsita (TE), in the upper Fino valley, where it was officially founded in the summer of 2011. In addition to an intensive series of internal working sessions, the Forum will have three public moments to report on its activities, also highlighting its twinning with another project supported by the Creative Europe Program in the province of Teramo, REVIVE, coordinated by Itaca ETS, whose objective is to develop and test solutions, approaches, and methodologies to support the revitalization of historic villages in decline through the experimentation of intercultural initiatives based on the enhancement of local cultural heritage sites.
Public Programme:
September 26th, 2025
8:45–10:00 p.m.
Audiovisual screening
Transhumance in Europe: Footage and testimonials from field research, presented by Tramontana partners.
September 27th, 2025
9:00-11:30
Conference
The construction of the intangible: Cultural work and cooperation in Europe
With:
Catiuscia Cacciatore, Mayor of Arsita
LuĂs Costa | Tramontana Network Coordinator
Renata De Rugeriis, Marco Magistrali, Gianfranco Spitilli | Tramontana Network Italy
Mauro Vanni, Alessandro Perfetti | Itaca ETS, REVIVE Project
Emanuela Giorgi | Project Adviser, European Education and Cultural Executive Agency (EACEA)
Andrea Sangiovanni | Professor of Contemporary History, University of Teramo
Pierluigi Sacco | Professor of Biobehavioral Economics, University of Chieti-Pescara
September 27th, 2025
11:30-17:00
Inauguration
RondilĂ : Center for Cultural Heritage of the Upper Fino Valley