A-Infos (en) Italy, FAS Sicilia Libertaria: LOTs - Free Southern Territorial Observatory is born (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Archaeology, history, art, conflict, culture, food and wine, but also 
nature, fire and water: these are the categories, the specific 
macro-themes, that LOTs - Free Southern Territorial Observatory - social 
promotion association founded in 2020 by a group of young professionals 
in the fields of architecture, design and art - aims to deepen and 
enhance through critical, responsible and sustainable tourism, with a 
focus on the marginal areas of Sicily, not only rural but also urban, 
and the recovery of identity, the rediscovery of memory, care for the 
environment, social inclusion and collective participation. From the 
temple of the Giant Holly trees in the Madonie, to the territories of 
the Valle del Belìce with the "ghost town" of Poggioreale, the cretto di 
Burri and the new Gibellina, from the rural villages of the fascist era 
to the natural spas of Sclafani Bagni, up to the southern coast of 
Palermo, symbol of the city's denied sea.

The main objective of LOTs is to propose an alternative to the 
mainstream tourist narrative of the Island, to mass tourism - with the 
dangers it entails in terms of erosion of the territory and beaches, air 
and water pollution, and destruction of the most fragile ecosystems - 
with a multidisciplinary approach, in the continuous search for new ways 
to promote the Sicilian territory aimed both at those who live in these 
territories and at those who are passing through.

The most marginal areas, characterized by low employment rates and a 
growing percentage of youth emigration, are the privileged places of 
LOTs' action which, through the "CLIMAX - Rebuilding a participatory 
heritage" project, financed under the «Fermenti» from the Department for 
Youth Policies and Universal Civil Service, activates its critical 
reflection and field activity, through new tourism practices in Sicily, 
in symbiosis with the associations and principals present and active 
locally.

A series of itineraries across the island have been selected, built on 
site and enriched with content developed in collaboration with 
intellectuals, artists and experts who participated in the project, and 
will be made available to the community via the LOTs web platform.

The first public event, the "Water Jumps" tour, was dedicated to the 
theme of water and took place on Saturday 16 March 2024. Curated by LOTs 
in collaboration with Diego Perez, it led participants to discover the 
heritage Madonie water supply. From Scillato to the slopes of Monte 
Fanusi, up to the Sclafani Bagni factory, to stimulate reflection on a 
precious and irreplaceable but not infinite resource, to discover the 
beauty of uncontaminated landscapes a few kilometers from the city.

In this area, water is a historically precious natural resource, today 
highly at risk, whose sites are in a state of great neglect and 
unfortunately considered witnesses of a minor landscape. Through the 
CLIMAX LOTs project it also includes a training program that has already 
involved more than 40 participants residing in Sicily or who have 
decided to move to the island to undertake this path. Through a 
multidisciplinary program, built between lessons and "in the field" 
training, the students have achieved the qualification of 
"eco-companion", an emerging professional figure, somewhere between 
explorer, territorial marketing expert and storyteller.

An integral part of the project is also the creation of a "geoblog" 
platform, which will allow for a more in-depth knowledge of the 
territories, and will function as an aggregator of similar experiences 
already active, and others to be built 
(www.liberoassociazioneterritoriale.com). At the end of the project, a 
photographic exhibition will be created that will tell the story of the 
first years of the LOTs experience.

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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