Cultural regeneration paths for the Fabbrica Alta factory, Schio (Venice)

The ‘Fabricaltra’ project intends to work on the theme of social innovation in the area of the first industrialisation of the Veneto region linked to the textile sector. The cultural regeneration project was conceived in 2016 and launched in the spring of 2017, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Lanerossi. The symbolic place of the company, the Fabbrica Alta in Schio, one of the most important monuments of Italian industrial archaeology, becomes the ‘place-theatre’ for the cultural and artistic ‘incursions’ conceived in and for the Factory with the aim of giving it new personality, new energy for its revitalisation, in memory of the thousands of life stories, of women and men, that have taken place and intertwined in the Fabbrica Alta.

The project initiative took the form of a programme of site-specific cultural/artistic activities with the aim of working on the visibility of the building, the re-elaboration of a shared memory, and the verification of new scenarios of conscious reuse/non-reuse, through a process of re-appropriation of the site as a public good, supported by tools related to artistic practices, audio and video installations, and theatrical narration. Fabricalatra hosted the art installation High Rise by Michele Spanghero for the Artificare project.

The path of cultural regeneration of Fabbrica Alta, with the involvement of international artists in residence, promoted training and animation initiatives thanks to the rich socio-cultural associative fabric already operating in the area.