The former Paper Mill (Cartiera) of Vas is an industrial archaeology compound of great interest, found in the southern part of the Belluno Province, and by the border with Treviso‘s.
In 2012, Dolomiti Contemporanee had already proposed to the municipal administration in charge at the time a projects of regeneration, to be carried out according to dc’s format, that is to say by launching an artistic residency in the site, and working for the reactivation of the space, in a way similar to what had already been done the previous year in Sass Muss.
It wasn’t possible to set forth the site project then, so, in the summer of 2012, dc opened the taibon block, which became the fulcrum of that season.

Below, an excerpt from a 2012 piece, which summarizes our thoughts then, that have not changed since:

The former paper mill (Cartiera) of vas is an industrial archaeology compound, partially restored in recent years thanks to substantial grants from the Veneto Region. The former paper mill safeguards a significant piece of the history, social economy and productivity of this territory. The site holds a remarkable potential, in virtue of the strategic position it occupies in regards to the traffic flow and the logistic, volumetric, formal and aesthetic characteristics, not to mention those of cultural value, and aura. In that sense, it is one of the most relevant compounds of the Belluno Province. Rethinking its function today, launching a project of enhancement, is a stimulating endeavour, and a necessary one, too. We’ve begun a reflection, together with the municipal public administration of quero, about a possible project of relaunch for the former paper mill. We believe that this site has all the necessary characteristics to go back to being an active centre, and that it might house a series of activities in a permanent way. Said activities, of a productive and cultural kind, should be conceived in relation with some other structures-resources already positively active in the municipal territory.

We thought, then, as we still do today, about the museum of the piave in caorera, and of the piave park. It’s water, evidently, the general theme which could build a meaningful link between these significant locations, only a few kilometres away from one another. And water, for a long time at the basis of the products of the paper mill, is one of the identity-making elements of this land.

The rethinking of the role and destiny of the paper mill could very well start from here. To connect, to put into a network, the existing resources, is the best method to spark and implement the global potential of a territory. A plan of relaunch for the paper mill could find its footing in an integrated platform, which could be imagined, if an integrated network of individuals, both public and private, all collaborating in regards of this objective, is going to be built. Thus, today, dc goes back to Vas, to study movements; in Vas where, meanwhile, other regenerative powers have taken residence (the lacharta association now handles the pulic part of the structure).

A first series of artistic projects will be developed, between august and October 2015, inside the territory of the Quero-Vas municipality.
Some of them, and in particular the pilot project, will focus precisely on the exceptional rooms of the paper mill, to begin a process of terraforming on them.
In this video-start, some pictures of the site, among which some of the spaces already re-activated by dc, still operating.

[Show as slideshow]