The first nomadic project of the Nomad Program took shape in Val di Fiemme, in the heart of Trentino-Alto Adige, a territory still marked by the scars left by Storm Vaia in 2018 and now further threatened by the spread of the European spruce bark beetle. Here, students from the two-year specialist programme in Design and Applied Arts at Km 0 of the MADE Program, guided by designer Harry Thaler, embarked on a research journey to investigate the relationship between nature, ecological crisis and the possibilities for transformation through design.
Through collaboration with ENAIP Tesero and the Trentino Forestry Corps, participants were able to explore reforestation processes firsthand, observing how local communities respond with care and expertise to a changing landscape. They learned how to select tree species for replanting, plan forestry operations and extract timber sustainably. In the forest, they observed the traces left by the bark beetle: grooves and bluish shades, signs of fragility but also of an unexpected beauty.
These experiences gave rise to two complementary projects: Forest Feast and Blu Effimero.
Forest Feast developed around the idea of a table: every element — plates, glasses, utensils and accessories — was designed and made by the students using timber affected by the bark beetle. Its blue veining, often perceived as a defect, became the distinctive aesthetic feature of the project. The table thus becomes a symbolic device: not simply a table setting, but a shared reflection on the relationship between material, crisis and possibility. Sitting at this table means inhabiting a story of resilience, transforming a wound into value and a limitation into an opportunity for beauty.
Blu Effimero, on the other hand, emerged from a storytelling workshop led by photographer Matteo De Mayda and writer Cosimo Bizzarri. It takes the form of a deck of cards inspired by Tarot iconography, narrating the evolution of the natural and human landscape of Val di Fiemme and Val di Fassa in the aftermath of Vaia. Each card stages fragments of a possible future, combining poetic and ironic imagery to reflect on community, fragility and reconstruction.
More than a narrative exercise, Blu Effimero is conceived as a tool for reimagining our collective imagery: if a storm can profoundly disrupt a territory, that experience can also become the starting point for a new pact of care, coexistence and responsibility towards the landscape.
