The festival of the people and for the people of the Dolomites, Dolomites UNESCO LabFest #BEYONDBORDERS, drew to a close on Sunday 30 August in Auronzo di Cadore (BL) with a meeting between Nives Meroi and Manolo on the theme “Chi sposta il limite” (boundary pushers). The theme of this festival was borders, or rather #BEYONDBORDERS, and this took practical shape in the form of a series of events exploring its meaning in various contexts: from the scientific to the cultural, from the musical to the culinary, also taking in administrative and planning issues affecting the entire property. These three days of encounters, shows, concerts, story-telling, discussions and reflections featured experts from a wide range of academic disciplines and other fields, among them social history, philosophy, anthropology, theology, scientific research, the financial and political world and of course mountaineering.
A hundred years on from Italy’s participation in the First World War and following on from edition zero of the Dolomites UNESCO LabFest, held in 2014 in La Val, Alta Badia, this year’s festival was organised in Auronzo di Cadore, just a short distance from such highly evocative locations as Tre Cime and Monte Piana.
Over the course of a century the Dolomites have been transformed from a place of conflict and a theatre of fratricidal war, to a World Heritage Site. It is essential for the massive responsibility for managing the natural heritage of the Dolomites to be a joint effort if it is to be handed down to new generations with all its values intact. We have now learned how to get to grips with and discuss this task and the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation is playing a leading role in promoting dialogue and collaboration between the various administrative authorities and all the other entities operating within the property. The Foundation encourages the exchange of good practice and it works to ensure that management policies are shared by all five provincial authorities that oversee the nine Dolomites systems.
“The Dolomites UNESCO LabFest is one of the many initiatives organised by the Foundation, working in partnership with the various local authorities and with the essential backing of a number of sponsors, in order to fulfil its role as a platform for the exchange of ideas among all those charged with making policy choices and those that have to put them into action”, underlines Marcella Morandini, General Secretary of the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation.
“LabFest is an experiment and, as with all experiments, its results have to be calibrated, a job involving input from all the various local entities. This necessarily requires all of them to work in partnership, including communications channels. Each one of them, according to their particular roles and responsibilities must play their part for the good of the Dolomites World Heritage Site.” As Marcella Morandini concludes: “the Auronzo local authority has played a vital role in this edition of LabFest and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the mayor Daniela Larese Filon and all her associates. On behalf of the Foundation, I would like to thank all the sponsors whose invaluable contributions have made this initiative possible. Many thanks also to Consorzio Tre Cime Dolomiti for their marvellous support”.
The Dolomites UNESCO LabFest, under the patronage of the provincial authority of Belluno, benefitted from the support of the Municipality of Auronzo di Cadore, Consorzio Tre Cime Dolomiti, Lattebusche, AIT Dolomiti, Legnolandia, Cassa di Risparmio del Veneto, Comunità di Primiero, not forgetting the founding members of the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation.
The network of events linked to Dolomites UNESCO LabFest #BEYONDBORDERS will continue for the whole of 2015.