There is a small risk in publishing this article but we shall see if it is worth the risk or not.
As we have already published at the start of the Barga Cultural Geocaching project, we are playing around with the concept of “value” – just what is value exactly and is it true that in modern life value has now turned into just meaning monetary value – money.
Most of the artists participating in the Barga cultural geocaching project are well aware of this story and quite happily donating their work and are not expecting any monetary return but one of the artists , Fabrizio Da Prato, is not just aware of this concept but is actively trying the to go against the tide so to speak and in an original, if illegal way.
His work which can be found in some, but not all of the boxes are screen prints directly onto five euro notes.
This of course is completely illegal and could be seen as defacing the Euros.
In the conversation with Fabrizio below he explains (in Italiano) some of the reasons why he chose this path to expression.
recent comments about the Barga cultural geocaches :
Che bella iniziativa! L’ho conosciuta via google news (finalmente avere il tag geocaching tra le news personalizzate ha avuto un senso!). Vedo che ci sono già svariati cultural-tesori da trovare, non mancherà una gita a Barga, nel frattempo metterò da parte qualcosa da portarmi per tenere alto il livello degli oggetti (come sta andando…?) Complimenti per l’iniziativa! LUK1969 – Firenze
Trovato in una caldissima giornata! Che afa!
Abbiamo lasciato un TB e un geocoin per i prossimi visitatori TFTC! – mais&maisVisiting the beautifull village Barga ofcourse it was a must to visit this cache. Our GPS had some difficulty to guide us to the right the direction but finally we found it. We enjoyed the lovely paintings inside and got enough energy from it to make it to the churh on the top afterwards despite the temperature! We want to thank barganews for this very nice cache. From us.. a favourite hoping the other caches come online during our holiday…. finefleur1
Abbiamo colto l’occasione di questa bella cache per farci un giretto a Barga (strano ma vero non c’eravamo mai stati) che ci è piaciuta molto. TFTC, un modo per unire cultura e geocaching, bella iniziativa.
During the search of this cache we have discovered Barga, a nice and interesting place to visit.
TFTC, good idea to put togethere culture and geocaching. – gigi e lucaWonderful 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 – brizen60
A good chance for coming again to Barga Thank you very much for a different kind of cache! – Red Luke
A series of 20 geocaches which are being hidden in the around the medieval walled city of Barga (LU) in Tuscany over the next month.
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 25 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)