WIESEN RAUMEN.
The Salten is a high plateau, an alpine pasture with very old, tall larch trees and is located above my home village of Jenesien. I'm stuck here due to the corona crisis. The curfew is being taken very seriously by the population. However, there are exceptions for the farmers. The work on the farm and in the fields has to go on somehow and there is a lot to do, especially at the beginning of spring: This includes the WIESEN RAUMEN. The meadows on the Salten are cleared of stones and pieces of wood to encourage growth. Due to the heavy and very wet snow, a lot of branches have fallen onto the meadows. You can see farmers working everywhere. My family is also clearing the meadows. We collect the small branches with a rake and pile them into small mounds. In the evening, the small mounds are gathered into a large mound, a match is put into the fire and it burns. The result is a meadow with many, many burning piles of sticks. The resulting ash is used as fertiliser.
I've been helping my family with this annual ritual for a long, long time. There is a fire. It burns brightly. Just like back then, the fires herald the transition from winter to spring. Today, all the farmers stand around the fires more thoughtfully than usual, because they are still in the midst of this unexpected state of emergency. The future is unpredictable. The outcome is open.
