Nord Nord

‘In no other country is the north as changeable, fluctuating and uncertain as in Italy. Everyone says, “it’s further north”. It is true that we are a southern European country, but nowhere else is the north referred to with such insistence as here.’ Since you went to live in the far north, leaving behind the plains of Emilia-Romagna, Marco Belpoliti has been fascinated by the mystery of that place, which is both concrete and elusive. And as in Pianura, rather than reaching a destination, the meaning of his wanderings lies in the encounters he has along the way. It is in the intellectual and human exchange with photographer, artist and writer friends – true guiding spirits – that Belpoliti identifies his North, his sentimental and poetic compass. Where exactly is the North? And what does it mean in our country? Is it perhaps a pure invention? Neither Dante nor Petrarch ever used this word; when necessary, they would have called it the North. So when did people start talking about it? Starting from these questions about a relative and elusive concept, Marco Belpoliti traces the contours of a territory defined by history, geography, personal and literary memories: a territory that extends from Milan, his city of choice, to Brianza, Monza and Bergamo, but also to the North Sea and even the Black Sea. Belpoliti takes a “geological” look at these places, including the erratic boulders left by glaciers millions of years ago, and projects himself into a (perhaps) dystopian future in which climate change will cause the Adriatic Sea to submerge the Po Valley, turning Brianza into a pleasant seaside resort. But his gaze is also attentive to the world of small animals – ladybirds, bats, crows, salamanders – which find refuge near his home, or even in his home, from season to season; attentive, above all, to the people he has been fortunate enough to know. These include some of the leading figures in Italian cultural life in recent decades, such as Alberto Arbasino, Gabriele Basilico, Mario Dondero, Enzo Mari, Lea Vergine, and the Sicilians who moved to the north, Vincenzo Consolo and Ferdinando Scianna: he gives us a gesture, a habit, a vision of the world for each of them. A journey to the mysterious and elusive North, where the author seems to want to take us with his story full of human and intellectual curiosity and his empathetic and intense voice.