Between Factory and Memory: Let's Discover the Industrial Landscape of Ferrania

The Workshop for children “Tra fabbrica e memoria: Scopriamo il paesaggio industriale di Ferrania” took place on October 19, 2024, at the Civic Library "F.C. Rossi", in Cairo Montenotte (Savona), in collaboration with the Ferrania Film Museum (Cairo Montenotte Municipality).

By introducing young participants to archival documents preserved at the Ferrania Film Museum, children were involved in two educational and creative activities that fostered their curiosity and self-expression by exploring and reinterpreting elements and features of Ferrania's industrial landscape and architecture, while enhancing their awareness of its historical and cultural significance.

The children of the Bormida Valley have the opportunity to explore a truly unique site within their territory, once home to a factory originally known as “Ferrania S.p.A.” and later as “3M” which specialized in the creation and production of photographic and cinematographic films. Within this factory, numerous individuals collaborated as a team to manufacture film and rolls used in cameras. Thanks to the efforts of the workers at Ferrania film factory, in Ferrania (Cairo Montenotte), people in Italy and many parts of the world were able to capture moments from special events and everyday family life as well as create family films and short videos. It was akin to freezing time within a small image!
Although the factory no longer produces film, Ferrania has found a new way to maintain its uniqueness. It has transformed into a space where we can still uncover many stories from the past while also envisioning various new activities and possibilities for the future.

In this webpage, Land-In-Pro collects and shows drawings produced by children who participated in the workshop. These drawings speak about dreams and suggest alternatives to possible futures of a partially dismissed former industrial site.
Land-In-Pro believes that the legacy of Ferrania is a cultural heritage to be saved and preserved, just as it is clear that children taught us that without imagination and creativity, nothing is transformed into the future.