Marginal Associazione Culturale – FULCRUM – Research Center for Material Culture in Transit

FULCRUM will re-imagine urban productions as a bridge between local culture and migrants. Material culture is the common ground to establish a dialogue that bypasses linguistic bias and focus on mutual curiosity and solidarity. Stemming from the COVID-19 emergency response in Palermo, FULCRUM proposes a long term strategy for the involvement of migrants, young people and unemployed around hand-making and food distribution, establishing a European network and an archive for material culture in the process.

They will research, experiment, and prototype earthen construction techniques, use natural fibers and woodwork in order to create an archive of sustainable design tools. This content will shape an online archive that renders the importance/richness of these sources, the know-how of marginalized cultures is extremely compelling for the future of sustainable design and architecture, it is a knowledge, circular and less extractive, that is inevitably disappearing from the European craftsmanship as well as from the African and Asian ones.

FULCRUM is an inquiry into the potential of migrations to re-frame contemporary European heritage and visions, it represents a model possible to replicate in any “arrival city” worldwide. In the process of creating the archive, they will involve experts and research centers from France (Amacò and CRAterre), Portugal and Greece.

Visit their website here.

Interview coming soon.