Irish artist Deirdre O'Mahony was in residence at Fondazione Ebbbio and worked on her european reserach project "The Message", understanding the difficulties smal scale farmers have across europe.

Massimo Ricciardo — Culinaria: outdoor practices
Artist in residence, 7–9 June 2025

During his short residency, artist Massimo Ricciardo developed the project Culinaria: outdoor practices, a research on the connections between ecology, community, and food culture.
Exploring farms, home gardens, and local markets across the valley, he met farmers and residents, collecting stories and ingredients that tell of a deep relationship between people and the land.

The residency culminated in a shared outdoor dinner — a simple and elemental menu of minestrone, bread, eggs, and vegetables cooked “au naturel” — celebrating the generosity of local produce and the conviviality of collective preparation.

Through Culinaria, Ricciardo investigates how local environments shape human activities and culinary traditions, weaving together geography, oral histories, and gestures of everyday life that carry an almost mythical resonance.

The year-long research project Culinaria: pratiche all’aria aperta is supported by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture as part of the Italian Council (13th edition, 2024) programme, which promotes Italian contemporary art worldwide. 

Project partners:
Museo Civico Castelbuono, Palermo; Cantieri d’Arte, Viterbo; Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften, Munich (DE); Future Farmers – platform for residencies and artists’ collective, San Francisco (USA).

Fondazione Ebbbio has catalogised all buildings in Ebbio in detail, collecting historical info and current status. With this mapping, the basis is made for a coordinated restructuring.

Fondazione Ebbbio has contributed to the purchase and exchange of various pieces of agricultural land and forest in the valley of Ebbio, to favor grouping, and to improve the efficient possibility of  work of the agriculturale land by the few remaining active farmers. More than 40 hectares and 17 people were involved in the process.

Fondazione Ebbbio contributed to a workshop  organized with the Politecnico of Milan, Department of Architecture and   Rural Studies, and their Piacenza Campus. 16 international students studied Ebbio and surroundings for 4 days and propose projects and solutions for a prosperous future. The projects were presented to and discussed with locals and municipal leaders.

Fondazione Ebbbio collected funds to acquire abbandoned and partially ruined structures in Ebbio, to group these, assure their existance and use them for a combined restructuring project.