"La Val da Incornisà" vite e ricordi nel cassetto

Until mid September, the hamlet of Torsas, in La Valle Agordina, has transformed into a true outdoor photographic exhibition: along the burele, the ancient alleys that wind between the houses, 50 giant photographs of historical images have been placed, telling the story of the hamlet's life from the early 1900s to the 1970s.

Torsas is a small vila that still preserves a particularly authentic architectural structure and atmosphere. Walking among its houses, one encounters courtyards, soler, barns, passages, and ancient alleys that for generations have represented the heart of daily life. And it is precisely here that the exhibition finds its uniqueness: the photographs are not just exhibited in one place, but return to the locations where those people lived, worked, played, and met. 
A photograph of a family in front of their home, for example, can today be observed practically in the same spot where it was taken decades ago. The images thus engage in dialogue with the homes, meadows, mountains, and views of the hamlet, creating an ongoing comparison between what was and what remains. 
Each photograph is also accompanied by an explanatory text in Italian, designed to provide the visitor not only with faces but also with the stories hidden behind each image: names and nicknames of the portrayed people, dates, places, daily activities, family events, and testimonies collected from the residents. When necessary, the texts also retain words and terms from local tradition, because language is also part of a community's memory. The photographs speak the universal language of images; the texts allow even those who do not know Torsas to enter into it.

This year's edition is the fifth of “La Val da Incornisà – lives and memories in the drawer”, a journey that started in 2022 and that in previous years has brought the exhibition to the hamlets of Conaggia, Fades, Gaidon and Lantrago. Each edition has allowed for the discovery of a new part of the town through photographs kept in the homes and drawers of families, gradually collecting a collective narrative of the history of La Valle Agordina.

Five editions, five hamlets, one great story of the memory of La Valle Agordina.
The exhibition is the result of collaboration between the Pro Loco La Valle Agordina and the inhabitants of Torsas, who opened their family albums, recovered photographs, recognized faces and nicknames, and shared stories, memories, and testimonies.
The result is a journey into the memory of a community: there are large families, children, grandparents and grandchildren, emigrants, returns, labor in the fields, haymaking, snow, celebrations, special occasions, and simple moments of daily life. Private photographs that, once put together, become the collective history of a hamlet and, through it, a small fragment of the history of all La Valle Agordina.

This year the route leads right into Torsas, a hamlet that has proven surprisingly rich in photographs and memories. A place that has witnessed the passage of time, seasonal changes, many people leaving and others returning, but that continues to maintain a strong sense of community.

As we like to say: “La Val da Incornisà” is not an exhibition to visit, it is an exhibition to walk through.
The exhibition is open until mid September.