The Rural Commons Assembly is a "network-in-the-making" and iterative platform, laboratory and think tank for trans-local networking and learning across the Alpine region. It brings together initiatives and practitioners who confront social, political, economic and ecological complexities through developing cooperative and imaginative alternatives on a local scale. The assembly offers safe spaces and public forums to its participants in order to facilitate encounters, mobilise situated knowledge, share and explore diverse practices, learn from different experiences and foster new alliances.
In its first edition, which took place from September 2nd to 5th 2021 in West-Austria, twelve initiatives from thre countries and five regions assembled for the first time. This included the European Region (EUREGIO) of Austria and Italy (Tyrol, South Tyrol, Trentino) as well as the border areas of Switzerland (Engadin) and Slovenia (Friuli Venezia Giulia). That way, various venues in the towns of Innsbruck and Wattens became places for mutual learning through workshops, presentations, discussions, guided tours and convivial activities. During its second edition, the same initiatives got together in the Italian town of Rovereto from March 3rd to 5th 2023.
The idea for the Rural Commons Assembly was born during a series of field trips undertaken by artist Johannes Reisigl around the Alps from 2019 onwards. In those years, he had been meeting various participating initiatives, weaving a patchwork of relations across regions and starting to sense overlapping themes, practices and interests; as much as problems, challenges and open questions. Understanding that there had been little resources and no spaces to federate these, he started to dedicate his own resources to shape such a space.
Doing so, Johannes partnered up with with the Rural Commons Festival co-curated by Cristina Dalla Torre, Bianca Elzenbaumer, Sara Favargiotti and Maddalena Ferretti in Spring 2021, to strengthen shared pursuits, further develop methodologies and adopt their concept of “rural commons” through action-research.
The first Rural Commons Assembly was made possible with the support of TKI Open 21, the Arts Council Tyrol, the Alpine Changemaker Network and all its participants. It was part of “In-Between”, the 2021 edition of Magic Carpets Austria curated by Danijela Oberhofer Tonkovic and funded through the European Union’s Creative Europe program. Due to the challenges of cross-border fundraising in the Alps, participants organised the second edition of the Rural Commons Assembly entirely self-funded, distributing tasks and expenses co-responsibly and according to everyone‘s needs.
In Partnership with
2021 edition funded by
Supported by
Accredited as
The Rural Commons Assembly is a "network-in-the-making" and iterative platform, laboratory and think tank for trans-local networking and learning across the Alpine region. It brings together initiatives and practitioners who confront social, political, economic and ecological complexities through developing cooperative and imaginative alternatives on a local scale. The assembly offers safe spaces and public forums to its participants in order to facilitate encounters, mobilise situated knowledge, share and explore diverse practices, learn from different experiences and foster new alliances.
In its first edition, which took place from September 2nd to 5th 2021 in West-Austria, twelve initiatives from thre countries and five regions assembled for the first time. This included the European Region (EUREGIO) of Austria and Italy (Tyrol, South Tyrol, Trentino) as well as the border areas of Switzerland (Engadin) and Slovenia (Friuli Venezia Giulia). That way, various venues in the towns of Innsbruck and Wattens became places for mutual learning through workshops, presentations, discussions, guided tours and convivial activities. During its second edition, the same initiatives got together in the Italian town of Rovereto from March 3rd to 5th 2023.
The idea for the Rural Commons Assembly was born during a series of field trips undertaken by artist Johannes Reisigl around the Alps from 2019 onwards. In those years, he had been meeting various participating initiatives, weaving a patchwork of relations across regions and starting to sense overlapping themes, practices and interests; as much as problems, challenges and open questions. Understanding that there had been little resources and no spaces to federate these, he started to dedicate his own resources to shape such a space.
Doing so, Johannes partnered up with with the Rural Commons Festival co-curated by Cristina Dalla Torre, Bianca Elzenbaumer, Sara Favargiotti and Maddalena Ferretti in Spring 2021, to strengthen shared pursuits, further develop methodologies and adopt their concept of “rural commons” through action-research.
The first Rural Commons Assembly was made possible with the support of TKI Open 21, the Arts Council Tyrol, the Alpine Changemaker Network and all its participants. It was part of “In-Between”, the 2021 edition of Magic Carpets Austria curated by Danijela Oberhofer Tonkovic and funded through the European Union’s Creative Europe program. Due to the challenges of cross-border fundraising in the Alps, participants organised the second edition of the Rural Commons Assembly entirely self-funded, distributing tasks and expenses co-responsibly and according to everyone‘s needs.
In Partnership with
2021 edition funded by
Supported by
Accredited as