Where better to sit down and talk with the group of artists from Livorno who are participating in the Cultural Geocache project than in the unofficial cultural centre of Barga – Aristo’s bar in Barga Vecchia ?
With wine being poured and salami cut in the background the group sat down and explained why they have become so involved in a project based here in the Serchio Valley.
The seven artists are just the “front runners” of participating artists from Livorno as other artists from the city are already preparing their mini canvases and drawings and will be added to the project next week.
GEOCACHING is an outdoor recreational activity, in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere in the world.
A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. After signing into the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value.
The cultural geocaches of Barga are somewhat different as they in fact do contain objects of value.
The caches contain signed original artworks, drawings, charcoal drawings, prints and etchings by 35 artists working in this area.
There are also mini poems and short stories in Italian and Latin
Professional musicians have prepared a series of cards containing QR codes which when scanned by smart phones will play music specially written for the project. The music includes classic, jazz, piano, tango, rock and folk.
The project is an attempt to “raise the bar” on the level of objects which can be found and exchanged in geocaches.
We hope that the people who find these objects will enjoy them as much as we have in preparing them. (the map for the first cultural geocache can be found here)
The first of these cultural geocahes was hidden in Barga Vecchia recently – it was found just 4 hours later by “Red Luke”, one of the enthusiasts of this new pastime who left the following message in the log book:
– A good chance for coming again to Barga Thank you very much for a different kind of cache!
and again just a few days later, another searcher from Hannover, Germany left the following message:
Wonderful holidays in the Toskana and the STF in this cache here. Thanks for showing us the beautiful town of Barga. Without your cache we wouldn’t have seen it. We enjoyed the old houses and the ice cream in the centre of the city. TFTC or better: Mille Grazie per la cache si dice brisen60 – Germany/Hannover
Participating artists, writers and musicians now include:
Tony Philips
Giorgia Madiai
Fabrizio Da Prato
Keane
Sandra Rigali
Debbie Salvi
Nicola Salotti
Tiziana Fontana
Graziella Cosimini
Marco Poma
Nicola Valiensi
Santo Privitera
Susto e Soranzio
Swietan Kraczyna
Simone Venturi
Andrea Guzzoletti
Bert Beach
Gabriele Levrine
Giuseppe Venturi
Michael Stimpson
Rory Wilmer
Massimo Salotti
Nazareno Giusti
Pepper Pepper
Lorenzo Paoli
Lucia Pedri
Brian Keeler
Paola Marchi
Laura Troiano
Chandra Point
Isabella Staino
Mauro Moriconi
Elisa Possenti
Fabio Leonardi
Sara Saccomani
Francesca Giari
Richard Clare
Diego Bisso
Fulvio Pucci
Renato Bisso
Gaia Rinaldi