Robida Collective

Robida is a collective living and working in the village of Topolò/Topolove, near the border between Italy and Slovenia. They are committed to situated engagement with the rhythms of the village, the forest, the community and the mountains. Part of this practice is constantly reaching outward: The collective has been curating and publishing Robida Magazine since 2015, with themes such as ‘Forest’, ‘Island’, ‘Soil’, and most recently, ‘Orchard’. In 2021, they began recording the monthly radio program Radio Robida, exploring the possibilities of ‘narrowcasting’ instead of broadcasting. Robida also hosts the yearly summer school of the Academy of Margins, where participants are invited to propose workshops, lectures, experiments based on a proposed theme. The Academy of Margins transforms Topolò into a learning site, where content is situated, adapts to the place and changes through it: the context ceases to be the scenery of learning, and becomes a participant to the development of reflections, questions and knowledge articulations.

Robida’s main desire and experiment is to rethink the possibilities of cultural work in post-rural areas: villages such as theirs which were once kept alive by agricultural production but have since been left behind in the process of modern urbanisation. In their everyday life and practice of staying with the place, Robida advocates for a future of common dwelling, an expansion of the concept of ‘resident’ to include more-than-human inhabitants of Topolò and a deconstruction of some of the basic oppositions haunting modern ways of living: rural/urban, inside/outside, public/private, host/guest.

Robida’s most recent project Uncommon Fruits investigates two different landscapes through the lens of fruit trees and the relations humans have with them. The project collects memories and knowledges around fruit tree culture and explores gardening as a technique that potentiates the whole landscape. Following the seasons; the landscape, the bees, the hands, the basket, the kitchen table, the drying rack, and the tart – re-imagines routines and rituals around fruit tree culture and its cyclical movements.