April 2011 I worked with my friend Nick on a farm high in the mountains in Süd Tirol (Italy). For 14 days we got the taste of the life on a goatfarm and were educated in the art of making cheese.
“Gleichseitig” (in the same time) I documented what life looks like on a “Bauernhof” (farm house) in the mountains (and most probably it’s comparable everywhere else on farms).
Busy documenting ‘life’ I focused on people and relations in particular.
Süd Tirol is a region in the North of Italy close to the Austrian border. As a particular region it has a form of autonomy. Süd Tirol is trilingual. Besides the strong dialects in every valley of the region one speaks German, Italian and Ladinisch which all have an official status. That means for example that every legal text has to be available in three languages. Ladinisch - by the way - is een retro-Roman language.
All of the farmers in the mountains are Germans for generations. They speak German and they feel themselves 100 % German. Not Italian, although they have an Italian passport.
Identity and nationality are big confusing issues in nowadays Europe and that’s one of the reasons which makes this region so interesting.
