As last year, we – large Robida fam – dedicated some time to think about 2024 and dream about 2025. Thanks to those who took part to the game and those who wanted but didn't manage <3
About 2024
What did you get better at this year?
Dora: Postponing things that I have to do eheheh.
Aljaž: I got more true to myself. Fuck it, if I want to eat a bag of chips, I’ll eat a bag of chips!
Barbara: To slow down at least a bit, and to wait.
Vida: At playing the double-bass.
ElenaB: At writing in Italian, ehhh.
ElenaR: At not being afraid of what I think are ‘big things’, at taking my time, at doing what I like.
Antônio: Expressing to others what I can and can’t do.
Janja: Probably at letting things go. And also at playing tennis I guess - even though, who knows.
Tiziana: At a lot of things! Better violinist, better musician, better traveller, knowing and dealing with some herbs, better at breathing and focusing.
Ola: At folding straps of textile into letters.
Maria: At packing suitcases and boxes and unpacking my feelings and instinctive reactions.
Suzanne: Thinking more long term, dreaming in length, daring to trust.
A luxury of this year.
Dora: weekly bathtub.
Aljaž: Four new pairs of pants.
Barbara: working not too much and saying no to things I cannot give energy to.
Vida: Drinking Matcha lattes with Franca quite often during intense working days. Also, reading under the sun while sitting on the bench of the room upstairs, with the window open, in November!
ElenaB: Having time in the morning to sip my coffee and read in bed.
ElenaR: Trip to NewYork.
Antonio: Visiting Martino in Tynos.
Janja: New home.
Tiziana: Big US Tour.
Ola: Holidays in a French château, mon dieu!
Maria: A weekend in an Austrian spa.
Suzanne: Affogatos at Paradiso, with pinolato icecream.
The nicest walk of this past year.
Dora: Following the Natisone river at its source, from Prosnid to Montemaggiore/Brezje. Even if you want to die in the last 10 minutes, I did it two times this summer, one with Cate on a late afternoon and one on a weekly trekking with a gang of kids.
Aljaž: I did a walk every day in a specific period in summer from our house to the river in Topolò. I went past Dora’s house in the direction of Stamorčak. Then turned right in the middle of the way, came to the interpoderale, turned left, went straight on to the waterfall. The old old mill. When I didn’t go every day, I went every second or third day. It was nice. I never went to the river so much as this year.
Barbara: Walking on a desert beach in Sardinia in June.
Vida: The walk to the antenna above Topolò we did in August. The path starts from the church, goes up to Brieza then to the right towards Livške Ravne, passing the border, and from Livške Ravne up. From the antenna, which I discovered being also an important spot of partisan fights which are remembered with a sign, you can see Topolò from behind. And this view gives you a totally new perception of the space where Topolò is swimming in. On the way back I always leave a flower on the cross dedicated to Milio, who also was a partisan and died in the forest while making wood. Sometimes others leave flowers there too and this makes me happy.
ElenaB: Every walk I took with my companion-dog Otto in Valcanale.
ElenaR: The craziest one was the walk in August from Mestre train Station to the Venice Marco Polo Airport, along the lagoon shores. Two hours of walking while observing the beautiful “barene”, with 40 degrees and carrying the bag for a week in Greece. Of course with my favourite crazy travelling companion Antonio.
Antonio: It is hard to single out one because I went on the nicest walks with Phillip, Suzanne, Elena, Heike and Luigi. But since going to the antenna in Slovenia and seeing Venice’s skyline amid the lagoons were already mentioned (which were both first timers for me), I will choose something that disclosed another layer of a familiar site. On our way back from the cave, Heike and I saw a big waterfall just after Stamorčak. It had been raining a few days before so the flux of water was quite intense. Going down was a bit difficult, but when we got to the waterline the sun showed up and the whole thing was beautiful because of the autumn colors. A cold dip it was!
Janja: Coastal walks in Cornwall, so much beauty around me + the walk in kew gardens, i found peace with London that day.
Tiziana: In Topolò, always great walks, but we (me and Thomys) had a wonderful walk in New York on the day of my birthday, going from low Manhattan, though Soho, Greenwoch village, High line and then back down to Manhattan alongside the Hudson river.
Ola: Walk back home from a panigiri — a Greek village fiesta — at 7 o'clock in the morning on the island of Ikaria, when we laughed the whole journey down the mountain, the morning light was incredible and at the end, we swam in the shiny blue sea.
Maria: A hike with my sister Anna and her boyfriend Bram into a wonderful Swiss valley, Val Fex. It felt like entering a dreamland, made of idyllic views, perfect little houses, hotels with people reading in the sun, horse carriages. The whole experience ended with a slice of amazing cake in the village of Soglio, a place that made me think a bit of Topolò.
Suzanne: With Vida “behind Topolò” seeing Topolò from the other side, and seeing the mountains and sea hugging the valley from afar.
One new thing you learned.
Dora: I learned to cook a good chestnuts soup.
Aljaž: I learned how to make a small container with wild clay from Topolò. Thanks Luigi.
Barbara: I learned to do cupping and using moxa in traditional Chinese medicine.
Vida: To make a stair within a dry stone wall, kind of.
ElenaB: I learned how to do alpine multi-pitch.
ElenaR: To seize opportunities.
Antonio: To code a website :)
Janja: I learnt Vectorworks, some new english expressions and a few german words. And I learnt again that patience is quite a good thing.
Tiziana: To use some herbs for cooking.
Ola: To swim with a snorkel
Maria: To use a sewing machine.
Suzanne: Palm binding, a technique for making rope from different materials, it’s a very physical technique, where I had to close my eyes in oder to feel how to do it.
One thing you were dependent upon.
Dora: The fire during the winter.
Vida: Sleeping overtime.
Aljaž: Recognition from others, I think, still after all these years. But I’m getting better at it. Next year could be the one.
Barbara: Silence.
ElenaB: Public transport time schedules.
ElenaR: Sun (my vital medicine!)
Antonio: Showers in the morning (controversial)
Tiziana: Herbs and COLD showers...two things.
Ola: A spike mat — sweet help for sleepless times.
Maria: I started a new therapy for my diabetes that made me dependent on a lot of new little medical devices.
Suzanne: Dinners with friends making me feel at home when being on the road.
Favourite words of 2024!
Dora: Smile, share, windows, challenge, escape.
Aljaž: Diprodotto, kopác, rikát, facù, uekát.
Barbara: Nourish, magic, assemblages, moss, porosity.
Vida: Leaning (against, upon, on, towards), complicity, correspondences, slowly falling, synecdoche and of course tinglings (thank you Franca for this last one - an essential word of our shared vocabulary!).
ElenaB: Grucce, shau, süß, amorevole, abate.
ElenaR: Restanza, threshold, moss, constancy, archive.
Antonio: Dio mio.
Janja: Byeee (english way), jolly nice, očuvati.
Tiziana: Wiwimacher.
Ola: Liberation, Bunia, let, gosh, maria (Michele came up with adding "Maria" after the name while calling us in public).
Maria: Fodera, Bemberg, état de lieu, brat, Claude.
Suzanne: Cloud, guest, house, esparto.
What plant were you in 2024 (and why!)?
Dora: A small fruit tree, maybe apple or pear, a common fruit, sweet and easy to eat or to use for a cake, but needs care and a spurring environment to grow and to bloom.
Aljaž: Still malva, or in Slovene – slezenovec. Quoting my own argument from the article with Erika Mayr, titled Listening to the Bees:“The plant I fell in love with the most is Malva sylvestris. I vividly remember truly noticing it for the first time last summer, as it began to fill the landscape around the apiary with its bright purple flowers. Bees love to dip into its pollen. When they leave the plant, full of nectar, they shimmer in the sunlight, covered in a layer of silver pollen. If I were a plant, I would be a malva.”
Barbara: Walnut tree, although it is more the plant I would like to be. I empathized with it because it's the plant I've looked at most often, rooted and majestic but at the same time welcoming so many small animals especially dormice, who play with it and make a home in it.
Vida: Vine, because it grows easily kind of everywhere.
ElenaB: Dandelion, I saw myself strolling in different “homes” and places in my home country this past year. Experiencing and mutating as the seasons pass by, I gathered and scattered stories like seeds along the way.
ElenaR: The sage: autonomous but also dependent on human beings.
Antonio: In the past I was chesnut, but now I am oak. I learned that acorns fruit around the same time as chestnuts, and, although mostly overlooked, are also nourishing.
Janja: Blueberry plant. it is in a way beautiful in all of the stages, being green all the year around, but this green changes and is more abundant and generous in spring and summer, a bit sad in autumn and very interesting and minimal in winter, ready for a new cycle.
Tiziana: Nettle, because it's a big friend of mine: for cooking, for herbal tees, for the seeds.
Ola: I think I was a seaweed (the transparent one with tiny bubbles on it), mostly because I dream of the sea all the time, I developed slow, smooth moves, and I floated a lot.
Maria: I was definitely a pothos, one of those basic but sturdy apartment plants. I thought mine were dead after three moves in five years, but then they amazed me by growing back after an aggressive trimming. They moved again, this time to a friend’s house, and I moved again, too.
Suzanne A wild spring onion, feeling optimistic and in full power in spring, while being a bit lost between the other greens end of summer and loosing the sense of place.
Favourite book and/or film of 2024.
Dora: I’m reading the last book by Sally Rooney, till now I like it and I especially like how I dive into the story. I should look for more books like this.
Aljaž: I loved the Vegetal Entwinements in Philosophy and Art (2023) reader edited by Michael Marder and Giovanni Aloi! Anyone interested in plant-art, plant-philosophy, plant-whatever – this is the one to read. But I also loved Georgi Gospodinov’s Natural Novel (1999).
Film: Oddity.
Barbara: Visitatori celesti by Chandra Candiani.
Vida: Max Liboiron, Pollution is Colonialism and Daniela Cascella, A Bell for Cristina – Writing and Image of Echo and Chimera, which is actually an essay not a book, a text about the beautiful, mysterious writer Cristina Campo.
ElenaB: Anything by Clarice Lispector, a Ukrainian-born Brazilian novelist and short story writer. Her writing is emotive and absorbing and filled with intelligent nuances. Her voice is searching and perceptive. I was first utterly swept away by The Hour of The Star, her last work (1977). Then, I purchased the volume Complete Stories by C. L. You can find her short stories published by Penguin Books, which are the perfect read to take along a trip or to give as a gift to someone.
ElenaR: La restanza by Vito Teti, beacuse all his words (or what I want to read from them) give me the meaning of living here in Topolò.
Janja: Krošnja z neznanimi sadeži by Helena Koder.
Tiziana: Anton Cechov, I racconti della maturità (The last short novels).
Ola: Females by Andrea Long Chu and Pacifiction by Albert Serra.
Maria: La figlia by Clara Usón, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway and Les enfants du large by Virginia Tangvald (books); Perfect Days by Wim Wenders, Poor things by Yorgos Lanthimos and Tatami by Zar Amir Ibrahimi and Guy Sattiv (films).
Suzanne: I loved The word for world is forrest it pulled me in and spit me out!
A colour of 2024
Dora: Orange.
Aljaž: Blue. I never dared to try wearing blue stuff, because it’s Vida’s color. This year I did. And it’s great.
Barbara: Bright green.
Vida: A specific light yellow (that of our pillow covers).
Elena: Prune colour.
ElenaR: White.
Antonio: White too.
Janja: Half of the year it was light blue and then it turned into light green.
Tiziana: Yellow
Ola: Green
Maria: I embraced red.
Suzanne: Light green.
The favourite place of 2024
Dora: My bathroom <3
Aljaž: I really like the new bookshop-bar Maks in Nova Gorica. I sometimes go there twice a week. Sometimes I also don’t go at all, but it’s nice to know that there is a nice place waiting for me in Nova Gorica.
Barbara: Topolò.
Vida: The little spring/fountain in the middle of the forest that Renato built in the 80s and decorated with blue and light blue glass buttons. And the little altar he made, in the same spot, under a rock. A very sweet human trace in the wild wild forest.
ElenaB: Cafe Steinach in Algund village, two feet away from my home at the time I was living in SouthTyrol. God knows how many great cappuccinos I had there.
ElenaR: One close to Topolò: the “hill of moss” close to the stream where we collected wild clay. One far from Topolò: the silent isolated chuch on a dry hill in Tinos.
Antonio: Somewhere close to the river.
Janja: A stone house in Cornwall, with a little garden, surrounded by cows and views to the ocean. And good company.
Tiziana: The second pool down the Mulino in Topolò.
Ola: Marseille.
Maria: A beach below the Duino castle which can only be reached with 15 minutes swimming or kayaking from the little harbour of the town.
Suzanne: The stairs of Vida and Ali, place of inbetweens, of rests and dream thinking, of doubts and gossips, of views and fogs, of meeting and departing.
Something nice done collectively
ElenaR: The preparation of a tasty sandwich dinner on 10 August at Robida's 10-year anniversary party. Great team!!
Vida: Fixing some dry stone walls during some rainy days in March, with Antoni, jean, Blaz, Brigita, Aivaras and the other Robidas. I want more of this (being outside with a group, taking care of the landscape, doing heavy work, eating salame and cheese with dirty hands, sharing a thermos of tea, moving stones).
Aljaž: We did the nice reader titled Reader of the Margins for the exhibiton in Villa Manin. It was very well coordinated, we did it very quickly and efficiently.
Tiziana: With two french colleagues we created the installation “Mycophonia”.
Ola: Our cookbook of IZBA Who is Cooking? made with Laura and the whole bigger and smaller Robida fam. Best collab ever, finished with a wedding of the authors and a glorious dancing night in front of IZBA.
Maria: I was very solitary and self-focused this year, and I think I have done pretty much nothing collectively. That is precisely what I want to change in 2025.
Suzanne: The wedding of David en Andrea, with Ele, Vida and Dora angels.
Dreaming 2025
A dry branch to cut away in this new year (metaphorically).
Aljaž: Overthinking. I would like to respond to everything in a very casual and chill way. I want to learn to forget stuff quickly.
Barbara: Scrolling socials during breakfast.
ElenaB: Take out the Instagram app from my phone, and only scroll occasionally from my laptop
ElenaR: Time wasted on things that do not interest me. And less Instagram.
Janja: Binging Netflix. byeee! also being afraid of too many things instead of just doing them.
Vida: Feeling intimidated by cool people.
Tiziana: Unfortunately I will have to cut two branches.
Ola: Boys.
Dora: Less romantic dreams, thanks.
Maria: All those books I read telling myself they are “for pleasure” but actually are only FOMO-fuelled choices.
Suzanne: Be more patient with myself trying to learn something.
A walk you would like to go to (not metaphorically).
Aljaž: The Rilke Trail from Sistiana to Duino.
Barbara: Montenero and Etna volcano.
ElenaB: I would love to do part of the Croatian Long Distance trail facing the sea, maybe with Otto!
ElenaR: To Mangart with Antonio or to the Libri di San Daniele with Franca and Gabriele. Or both :)
Antonio: From Topolò to Gregors’ orchiard
Janja: Dolomiti or some Swiss Alpine route.
Vida: A walk from Topolò to Kolovrat, where you can see the sea, and back. Maybe with the snow!
Ola: Rome, just waks through the streets of Rome.
Dora: Norway - or just in the north
Maria: I want to walk everyday, and I want to hike up the Sernio mountain.
Suzanne: Exploring the border between Austria and Italy.
Give a title to the new year coming.
Aljaž: The Awesome. The title of the director’s cut: The best year a long-haired Slovene person living in a village in Benečija could possibly have.
Barbara: L’anno del Serpente / The snake Year to come.
ElenaB: Are we there yet?
ElenaR: Gesture by Gesture
Tiziana: Re-die, re-birth
Janja: Little miracle
Vida: Like a creeper growing between stones
Ola: Yessssss
Maria: Maria in Paris
Dora: Another (or new) error
Suzanne: A taste of stone
What would you need to do to improve your relation to your body?
Aljaž: Squats.
Barbara: More dancing and training/reseraching for myself.
ElenaB: Try again to run every other day.
ElenaR: Revitalise the arm muscles, which I don't know if they exist.
Antonio: Better sleep.
Janja: Overall posture + control of facial expressions.
Vida: Swim with people and fuck it.
Tiziana: Stop getting sick.
Ola: We’re on good terms but we could be stronger.
Dora: Go to the sea (or ocean) and dip into salty water.
Maria: Become stronger, but also less tense.
Suzanne: Checking in everyday with my back, feeling and bending to know what it needs.
With whom would you like to collaborate more in this new year? (Something to develop with someone.)
Barbara: with musicians / vocalists (Tiziana?) and a surprise collaboration that pops up.
ElenaB: I would love to develop a methodology-contract-way for collaborating with artists and designers to screen-print on textiles their work.
ElenaR: Mmm difficult question: maybe something with Petra, Janja, Antonio…
Antonio: I would like to collaborate with Blaso, the climbing artist.
Vida: With many people (Rosario, Franca, Robidas) I am happy to already know that I will collaborate! I would like to do something with Elena B. And maybe also receive an invitation from someone unexpected to do something together!
Tiziana: With the board of Associazione Topolò and Robida to create new artistic projects.
Ola: Apartamento, Tekla, Plant Magazine, Robida (dream big, what the hell!)
Maria: Anyone, since I want to bring more collaboration in my life. I would like to start a theatre workshop with that aim. I would also like to put together a small family histories archive.
Dora: Ola <3 maybe also find a structured way to work with Vida and Ele, we could be a great team. (We actually already are, by V).
Suzanne: Sasha! I’d love to cross our thinking more, or touches more, our wonderings.
A change in the house.
Aljaž: I like it just the way it is.
Barbara: A closet and a bookshelf.
ElenaB: First things first: find my nest!
ElenaR: A new steel sink!
Antonio: Maybe some new bookshelves? We are running out of space!
Janja: Balcony garden (we are talking about 1m2, but still).
Vida: Re-paint the balcony (dai, it’s doable!) [oh yes-by ele].
Tiziana: A change of house.
Ola: Paint the corridor and get a new sofa.
Dora: Books and a desk for home working.
Suzanne: A house!
A guide animal for 2025!
Aljaž: this.
Barbara: Goat or Snake (very different!).
ElenaR: Turtle.
Elena: Otto!
Antonio: Salamander.
Janja: bird (a singing one).
Vida: cincia bigia (Marsh tit, Poecile palustris), sweet like a cinciarella (Eurasian blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus) but less of a show off.
Tiziana: Phoenix.
Ola: Strawberry squid from the deep sea.
Maria: An ant. Collaborative and stocking stuff up for the winter and all of that.
Dora: Fluffy alpaca.
Propose a challenge to a friend.
ElenaR: To Barbara: to stay at least six months in Topolò and carry out her own projects.
Antonio: To Elena, to make a 2025 edition of disegno in suono where you draw your dreams for the stalla.
Tiziana: To Vida (hehe…te la sei voluta): make derivative baths for at least 21 days every day.
Aljaž: To Vida, Elena and Dora – read a novel in Slovene.
Vida: To Dora, make the first step!
Maria: To Vida, I want proof that you accepted a dance in 2025!
Dora: To Sofi, live in Topolò for 6 month.
Barbara: To Aljaz, to attend at least 8 (in the whole year) training / movement / somatic “class” with me or somebody else, doing squats and more, in exchange of bass class by you to me.
Suzanne: to Vida, Ele, Dora, cold water dipping together in spring or fall.
Step out of the comfort zone at least once (challenge for yourself)
ElenaB: Say yes to everyone and everything for a whole month.
ElenaR: A distant journey (of which I am afraid). Showing my body.
Janja: More work with flowers, more projects that are not obvious and seem difficult at the first sight.
Tiziana: Sleep in a dormitory with 10 people I don’t know and share the same toilet/bathroom…horror!!
Vida: Go to a club to dance (who wants to invite me?). IOOOOOOO (Barbara)
Ola: Be more business lady professional gall when it comes to money.
Aljaž: Don’t be afraid to say what you think. Don’t be rude doing it, but still… Say your mind, share your needs, don’t care what others think about it.
Maria: Try a theatre class, or maybe some new type of dance.
Dora: Improvise a journey of a few days, with no schedule and goals.
Barbara: To be less compliant and to meet my ex after 10 years.
Suzanne: Wear a dress, for a least a day.
Something you are curious about and you would like to explore more.
ElenaB: I just received my very first wood-carving tool from my secret Santa, might be the time to ditch illustrator and laser cut machines to handcarve on wood?
ElenaR: Experimenting with clay.
Antonio: Woodworking!
Janja: flowers x space + more knowledge about renovation, like real stuff.
Vida: I would like to dedicate time to explore our dialect, landguage, writing down words I like and using them!
Tiziana: Qi-Gong.
Ola: Go to tarot cards reading.
Aljaž: Water drinking.
Maria: Tarots here too!
Dora: Knitting, crochet or something related to hand and textile, maybe using a loom.
Barbara: Wood cutting / working and walking.
Suzanne: Weaving, spending more time to understand the hand gestures, letting them go, see where they weave.
More … (five things you would like to include, take in, dedicate attention to)
ElenaB: Long-distance friendship correspondences, alpine skiing, ayurveda health remedies, handstands, frame properly my friends' work and gifts, learning new Friulian crafts
ElenaR: Constancy, productive time (yesss like a machine ahah), movement, more clay and more drawings and…more cosy dinners.
Antonio: Slovene, color grading, radio speaking, having friends over and visiting friends abroad.
Janja: Walks instead of screen time, laughing instead of complaining, playing more tennis, putting more attention in gifts to others, cinema club, courage, working with hands for the ‘work’, recipe cooking and baking.
Vida: Flowers in the garden, time with my mum, time with nonna Maria, books in Italian and French, meaningful conversations.
Tiziana: Tours with Thomas and other ensembles, Cechov, herbs, kombucha, light, nature, learning in general, self-confidence.
Ola: Sea, dancing, large scale projects, animals, love.
Aljaž: Horror films, water drinking, working from the library, improv radio, playing music.
Maria: Nurturing my far-away friendships and my opportunities for new ones, getting out of my comfort zone, learning to do pushups, moving every day, making clothes with some textiles I bought, reading only what truly draws me, working away from the house, doing the first step towards others.
Dora: Reading novels, sharing cooking time, studying, traveling and maybe i would like to try some writing.
Barbara: Walking, dancing, being focused, meditation, playing music, make a trip again, self-awareness, drawing with Elena.
Suzanne: Write, sort, water, friendship, weaving.
Less … (five things you would like to exclude, take out, dedicate less attention to)
ElenaB: Worrying about my online presence, laptop working, cigarettes, excuses.
ElenaR: Time on Instagram, small talks, tv series, the answer “yes, I will do it” when you don’t want actually to do something.
Janja: Being lazy, being afraid, not being confident, less screen time that is not for work, things.
Vida: Chips, impulsivity, being not nice to Ele and Dona, chaos in the house.
Tiziana: Noise, pollution, rage, doctors.
Ola: Wars, fears, boredom, clouds, taking responsibilities for others.
Aljaž: Smokes, useless jobs, self-pitying, seriousness, chips and candy.
Maria: Screen time, boring books, stressing about situations I cannot control, worrying, and working from the couch.
Dora: Computer, rush to go somewhere and to do stuff, love sabotage, excuses (inspired by EleB).
Barbara: Prioritizing practical and futile things, time on social networks, too many humans and relationships, some bad habits, the lack of constancy.
Suzanne: Starting something and not finishing it, piles of things (relates to previous), doubt, screens, car.
A quality of a friend which you would like to learn.
ElenaB: I would love to learn to be more patient and “be fully present” like aunty Sash does, and at the same time find my way of being straightforward, with humor, like Ele R. does.
ElenaR: To know how to “show and sell yourself” in an unpretentious way.
Janja: Confidently speaking of the work and interests without feeling phony. + Reading recipes and other instructions carefully until the last step.
Vida: Rigour from Aljaž, γνῶθι σεαυτόν from Elena, Franca and Maria, energy (for parties, collective things) from Dora.
Tiziana: The same as ElenaR!
Ola: Have certain lightness in decision making like Zosia (some things does not matter that much)
Aljaž: Courage, from Vida. Vida just told me she is actually not courageous. Ok, so maybe her alla-cazzoness.
Maria: I have a lot to learn from all of my friends on here about working and living together and nurturing the collective.
Dora: Concentration, to read, to dip into a topic and be curious to know more, dedication.
Barbara: from Elena and Vida, different ways of focusing inside/outside; from Titta: finding self-comfort and self-esteem; from Tiziana: brightness and self-irony, and I take Dora’s answer too: dedication (we can share dedication moments ;))
Suzanne: Vida, Ele, Dora – to just visit friends or family house without asking or feeling out of place to chat or hang out.