A division between the sacred (the abandoned place) and the profane (the society). Only certain individuals, endowed with a certain knowledge and therefore charged with a certain energy, can cross this threshold.
Position
The abandoned house is located on the Strada della Romagna which connects Pesaro to Cattolica.
You can easily get in through the open door overlooking the road.
Description
We enter the abandoned house without any problems without any expectations and hope to find something interesting inside. We wander around the first floor finding a bicycle, a bed all dusty and a carpet depicting a mosque.
We have to think again immediately afterwards when, on the second floor, we come across what might well have been the home of a Muslim. In the minutes to come, several questions follow which I will not be able to find an answer to. “Was the Muslim the real owner? Or an unwanted guest following the abandonment of the building?” I ask myself. Not that it makes much difference as the name I would later give the place had already come to me. He was the one who would give the place meaning. Through experience, the space is imbued with meaning and memory. Spaces, like dreams, are constructed of desires and fears.
In what could have been the living room we find some sacred books of Islam as well as several videotapes, furniture, plates and other objects and utensils. Attached to the wall are some specially framed old lire. The kitchen still has all its pots and dishes. Even the spices have remained in their bottles.
Other questions arise between me and what I find myself in front of… but how did this space ever form? How did it emerge and how did it stay that way? Can it be seen as an ethical realm? A place open to sacredness, to the encounter with the divine. It alters the way the Muslim experiences his own self, cultivating a different Muslim identity. A counter-space? A non-place transformed into a place? After several unresolved questions we leave this place happy to have found something abandoned in our trekking in the Regional Park of Monte San Bartolo.
