Güllüdere and Kızılçukur: the Rose Valley and the Red Valley in Cappadocia
public ceremony for the Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens 2020-2021
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| Treviso, Piazza Duomo, courtyard of the Gallerie delle Prigioni |
The Scientific Committee of the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche has unanimously decided to dedicate the thirty-first edition of the International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens to a place emerging out of the complex history and geographies of Cappadocia: two contiguous valleys carved out of volcanic rock known as the Rose and Red Valleys or Güllüdere and Kızılçukur in Turkish. In the heart of the Anatolian peninsula, the age-old bridge for the different cultures of Asia and Europe, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, lies Cappadocia with its plateaus surrounded by majestic volcanoes. The landscape is arid, carved out by wind and water; the climate is difficult. All of these factors form the natural scenery of a region that saw the arrival of early Christianity and of the Church Fathers as early as the first century, followed by the spread of Byzantine culture with its countless hermitages and monastic settlements, churches and sanctuaries that came to form one of the foremost Christian communities of the first millennium. This left us a legacy of spaces where incredible cycles of paintings, sacred buildings and other constructions scattered throughout this vast territory were gradually turned into stables, rural dwellings, and cisterns, and into a multitude of dovecotes for the birds providing farmers with guano to fertilize their fields. Güllüdere and Kızılçukur emerging from this context reveal the extent and profound value of a landscape where, between the form of human settlement and the sensational geology of its soil, the traces of an ancient culture of prevalently rupestrian settlements are conserved; traces that hold an equilibrium between the different expressions of nature and the various cultures succeeding each other over the centuries.
Programme
Introduced and coordinated by Luigi Latini, the Chair of the Foundation’s Scientific Committee, the ceremony will include:
> the projection of the documentary film Güllüdere and Kızılçukur: the Rose Valley and the Red Valley in Cappadocia, produced by the Foundation and directed by Davide Gambino, in collaboration with Gabriele Gismondi;
> a reading of the Prize Statement and the presentation of the collective volume dedicated to the site, edited by Patrizia Boschiero and Luigi Latini;
> the presentation of the seal designed by Carlo Scarpa to art historian Maria Andaloro, the promoter and director of the research mission organized by Tuscia University, in recognition of her commitment and concern for the site. Since 2006, Maria Andaloro has travelled between Italy and Cappadocia, promoting a campaign transmitting ceaseless care and know-how accompanied by an awareness of the landscape in terms of belonging and responsible safeguarding. The Prize now in her hands is intended to express our closeness and support for all those people working in Cappadocia to safeguard and raise awareness of a special heritage rich in meanings and teachings.
The presentation will be followed by addresses delivered by representatives of cultural and public institutions.
Finally, the first performance of In Cappadocia, rereading the words of Pier Paolo Pasolini / Man Earth Contact, a drama performance for dancer and three musicians, by and with Laura Moro, Pino Petraccia, Jorge Ro’ and Stefano Taglietti.