Alberi Maestri

Alberi Maestri is a project by Alberi Festival to build a worldwide map of trees of particular botanical, historical, cultural, social and community relevance.

Preface

In 1982 Cesare Leonardi published with Franca Stagi the volume “L’Architettura degli Alberi”, a reference manual for generations of students and landscape architects, the result of twenty years of studies, travels, photographic cataloging and finally meticulous redesign of trees in 1:100 scale . A work inspired by the need to mix languages ​​and knowledge, technique and passion, science and art. The fascination of the marvelous forms of nature, for which, Leonardi recalls, « I felt a greater attraction than for the forms of architecture» led him in the early 1980s to the creation of a modular matrix for planting that he called the Centralized Reticular Structure. The purpose of the SRA is to establish conditions of balance and coexistence between human beings and trees, without one dominating the other. It is precisely the experience and lesson of the Leonardi-Stagi duo, combined with the deep-rooted culture of “ green” that has characterized the political and urban history of the city, that inspired the Municipality of Modena to create the first edition of the Alberi Festival, which received recognition and support from the Directorate-General for Creativity and the Ministry of the Environment. Contemporanea of ​​the Italian Ministry of Culture.

The Festival

The first edition of Alberi Festival took place from 7 to 13 April 2025 in an area of ​​the Villaggio Artigiano Modena Ovest neighborhood pedestrianized for the occasion, which connects the archive and the house-studio of Cesare Leonardi with artisan workshops, abandoned spaces, industrial courtyards and the new Diagonale verde built on the site of the old railway. Divided into 4 thematic areas (Knowing how to see trees, The metamorphoses of trees, The city of trees, Designing with trees), the festival offers master classes, exhibitions with archive materials, installations, itineraries and guided tours, workshops for children and adults. In this complex program of proposals, particular importance will be given to the given to the identification of emblematic trees on the Italian territory for botanical characteristics, historical, cultural, social, community value. In line with the theme of the Festival, the objective is to select existing specimens that express values ​​based on the relationship between men and trees.