Pesaro. Inauguration on Saturday 20 April of "The Walking Forest": installation of 100 trees and shrubs in Piazza del Popolo.

100 large pots of trees and shrubs that advance in the city to regenerate barren soil: this is 'The Walking Forest', a project just presented by Pesaro 2024 which takes shape in the 'living nature of culture' section. The route starts on Saturday 20 April starting at 10am – a real day of community celebration in which everyone is invited to participate – with 8 stages that will run until the month of October, each time an opportunity to create entertainment and cultural dissemination events around the itinerant greenery.

Moved by an experience heard and not even seen, in December 2022 the mayor Matteo Ricci and Daniele Vimini deputy mayor and councilor for Beauty of the Municipality of Pesaro, imagined producing on the occasion of Pesaro 2024 a temporary installation of trees and shrubs in places in the city where the vegetal element was absent, like a green invasion. The event had to be capable of producing a reinterpretation of the occupied urban space itself and at the same time a rethinking of the man/nature relationship and so it was thought. From April 20, 100 trees and shrubs (6 m and a half the tallest plant) placed in 1 cubic meter hemp vases, they will occupy a part of Piazza del Popolo and after two weeks they will proceed on a long journey in stages towards their final destination. In October they will be planted in the ground in the area of ​​the Santa Marta Hotel Institute which, thanks to the 'Walking Forest' project, will be significantly redeveloped by transforming heavily degraded and asphyxiated soil into a park also equipped with green classrooms.

The opening day
This is the program for Saturday 20th by 10 the convocation of volunteers who want to collaborate in the movement of the plants expected in the exit area of ​​the Barracks in Viale della Liberazione, expected to move 25 plants for each transfer; there will be music during the lunch break by the children of Santa Marta, a performance by Simone Morottti and the Pouët puppet company, the Candelara Band to 15 and final DJ set by a Santa Marta student. But the very latest program will be defined during the day also based on the actual times required by the transport logistics of an event never staged before.

The subjects involved

The project was coordinated by Michele Gambini and operationally entrusted to Aspes, the implementing body. The latter made use of the professional work of Olga Moskvina, a landscape designer who took care of the entire planning and logistics part, from the design of the space for the final destination of the plants to the sourcing of the same in over 10 nurseries scattered throughout Italy up to the conception of the hemp vase, a solution specifically designed to minimize the environmental impact of the event. Sergio Paladino is in charge of the artistic and informative events that will accompany the different stages of the Forest (obviously in team with coordinator and designer). Naturally, the design of the Santa Marta space featured the entire school as a protagonist with the director Roberto Franca, the teachers and the children. Another fundamental piece of the long Bosco event is the collaboration of the Civil Protection in the moving phases and in the care of the plants.

A huge thank you goes to 28th 'Pavia' Regiment in the person of its commander, Colonel Antonio di Leonardo, for hosting the forest under construction. Considering the logistical complexity of the entire work, the Bosco probably would not have been possible without the hospitality of the Army.

Other companies have also generously got involved to help the 'Walking Forest': Renco has made 10 plants available which will go to the Molaroni Park in October, Lindbergh Hotels&Resorts of Nardo Filippetti has 'lent' some plants and the Moretti Ugo Carrelli company Elevatori supplies lifts for loading and unloading plants on trolleys, built by the Teo Rimorchi company.

The transfers of the 'Walking Forest', events within the event, will involve volunteers and citizens. The VolunteerX of Pesaro 2024 (about a hundred involved) and the Municipality's Green Volunteers have already responded to the appeal but the invitation to participate in the project is open and extended to anyone who wants to give their contribution to moving the plants. In its passages the Bosco will also involve Liceo Artistico Mengaroni when it will occupy - welcomed by the children - the space in front of the school: the square of Creativity.

History

The project started in October 2023 with a series of participatory meetings from which it clearly emerged that a work like the 'Walking Forest' could only have a profound meaning if it brought about a regenerative and definitive transformation. It was necessary for the forest to regain a compromised space. Precisely in those meetings the idea of ​​involving Santa Marta emerged, an idea then immediately accepted by the mayor Matteo Ricci, the president of the Province Giuseppe Paolini and the school director Roberto Franca. The school was the protagonist of numerous meetings in which the children expressed their needs and expectations and were the starting point for the planning of the redevelopment intervention which will start with the preliminary preparation of the land well in advance of the location definitive of the plants. Another indication that emerged from the participatory meetings at the beginning of the project was the concern that an event of this nature should be designed with the lowest possible environmental impact. For this all the material used for the Walking Forest, including the vases, will be reused in the regeneration and redevelopment of the Santa Marta area, so as not to waste anything.

It should be remembered that compared to the forest stages, the one planned for Calata Caio Duilio is subject to authorization from the Port Authority and the Port Authority.

Present at the press conference were: Daniele Vimini, deputy mayor and councilor for beauty of the municipality of Pesaro; the municipal councilor Michele Gambini coordinator of the project, the landscape designer Olga Moskvina, Sergio Paladino artistic curator, Roberto Franca school director of the 'Santa Marta' Hotel Institute, Colonel Antonio Di Leonardo commander of the 28th 'Pavia' Regiment - Italian Army, the president of Marco Perugini City Council.

Michele Gambini opened: the idea was to bring trees into spaces that normally do not see the vegetal element to reinvent them, to produce a visual shock. The way we developed it was a participatory process in which citizens told us what they thought about this thing. And we realized that it would only make sense if it produced a real definitive transformation of the city and this is what happens because the 100 plants that leave on Saturday will be placed in the area pertaining to the Santa Marta Institute in October, transforming a place of made sterile in a forest with even green classrooms. Therefore the meaning of the operation is to invest even huge resources to recover a space that does not correspond to the level of quality that we should guarantee for a school and produce environmental transformation and sustainability. And in the 5 months before arriving at Santa Marta, the forest will speak to the city with its presence because the 100 plants will be moved periodically to occupy spaces that usually have no greenery. This is a very complex operation from a logistical point of view which does not have many precedents in Italy and in the rest of the world. There are many aspects to take care of, the safety of the plants must be guaranteed - therefore the vase protects against sudden changes in temperature and humidity that are too sudden - for example, but everything has been thought of in any case to minimize waste at the end of the project which must leave environmental sustainability and for the protection of plants. So the vases are made of totally natural hemp panels (pressed fibres), vases that did not exist and were produced specifically, and raw earth, a material that will then also be used for the arrangement of the Santa Marta and can be buried because it is compostable. An aspect relating to the communication of the project is that when the plants leave Piazza del Popolo they will also have panels to make environmental disclosure.

Olga Moskvina emphasized the strong innovation of the project especially in respecting the plants so that they do not suffer too much; the methods used in the project will be explained in order to become indications for everyone on how to take care of their greenery.

Sergio Paladino recalled the artistic component of the project which aims to conceive for each colonized space a shared and participated space of art, culture, sociality and well-being; there will also be a dinner among the plants and musical moments in collaboration with the Rossini Conservatory. A programming that will deliberately focus on less central spaces. This aspect was achieved with the collaboration of local associations.

So Antonio Di Leonardo: the walking forest has interrupted the routine of the barracks and brought oxygen and colour, so I thank the Municipality. This and many other initiatives demonstrate how the synergy between different realities leads to optimal results also in view of the enjoyment of the people of Pesaro. For us soldiers accustomed to living in nature it was one more reason to learn to love plants.

Roberto Franca: I am very happy to participate in an activity that puts children at the center and makes them the custodians of the forest, here the students participate personally by becoming custodians of the greenery and gain experience in the name of sustainability.

The conclusions to Daniele Vimini: we are very happy and excited for a project that is one of the things that will remain in the future not only for the number of people involved and the participatory process but also for the transformed space of the city. The work must also be contextualized in a broader context, so from October onwards there will be 7 hectares of plants planted thanks also to Aspes and Società Autostrade. With Pesaro 2024 it was possible to achieve a major plant movement operation to create a forest that will have a long and stable life, a shared heritage. With an important message that will be conveyed in the months between now and October, perfectly in line with 'the nature of culture' for the value of sustainability but also because it is more than ever a community project. The forest will be a scenographic element of the city, not only for the Olympic procession on Saturday but for all the rest areas of the plants which will take on new life.

The final greeting from Marco Perugini who announced that On Saturday 20 April the Municipality will deliver a certificate of recognition to the 28th Pavia Regiment for this and all the other collaborations over time and for the activities carried out in Italy and around the world which perfectly match the values ​​of Pesaro 2024.