A bespoke garden
In 1939, Mirafiori, the FIAT plant, was built on the southern edge of Turin, which provoked a massive internal migration. Between 1953 and 1965 the local population doubled, which dictated the need to construct a new suburban dormitory-style district called “Mirafiori Sud”. These new blue-collar workers, who had come from the southern countryside of Italy, were constrained to an urban lifestyle. In response to that, and with the desire to renew with their country roots, many of them started creating small allotments on state-owned or private land.
Season after season they moulded the periphery land to their cultivation needs. Nowadays, we find around 700 ‘spontaneous’ allotments which stand for the creativity, persistence and identity of their owners. Following a renovated interest in urban agriculture, these allotments are now undergoing a transformation process which would finally regulate them, with all the ensuing consequences, often contradictory.
Annalisa D’Angelo, Curator
