Ancient Professions

The rediscovery of lost and forgotten professions

04/12/2021

The Ethnographic Museum of the Regole d'Ampezzo dedicates the winter season 2021-22 to a fundamental aspect for the local community of the past: a temporary exhibition whose protagonists are some of the professions that were practiced daily and which now have completely or almost disappeared.

The exhibition entitled Antichi Mestieri - Alla riscoperta di mestieri perduti e dimenticati will be present in the museum spaces from December 4th 2021 to April 18th 2022. Alongside the handicrafts, already present in the fixed setting - some now unfortunately practiced by a small number of masters such as filigree and tar-kashi - there will be added those professions that over time have been abandoned or are rarely still practiced. Figures that up to fifty years ago were widespread and were often called directly to homes to carry out their job today find a "second life" through the display of tools used during work, images and curiosities. A return to the past where technology was limited, but the dexterity, precision and passion of the individual were on the agenda.

It will therefore be possible to observe and rediscover the figures of the leather tanner, fundamental for the correct treatment of materials, some of which are also used in agricultural tools, the shoemaker and the beekeeper, trades that are still practiced but in a more reduced way. the wool weavers who often and willingly took care of the entire manufacturing process, from shearing the sheep to the finished product in skeins and finally seamstresses and embroiderers who, with their precision, gave life to works of the finest elegance.

The exhibition will be implemented by some panels that emphasize specific preparations or processes such as those of milk and cheese, speck, but also linen and hemp. Small focus on engaging visitors in a journey back in time to remember how knowing the past is essential to understand the present and improve the future.