Author Archives: bembodavies

A mystical backlash accompanied our presence in Matera.  We could profess our innocence of any imperialistic ambitions, but a significant segment of the population stood against the very existence of such a foreign entity as the unMonastery in the primo … Continue reading →

(in the run up to the beta version of the Book of Greater and Lesser Omissions – several items that are more internal than informative are being temporarily parked here in full public view. Please excuse me.) Reprogramming Individuality Urban … Continue reading →

The unMonastery salutes the unBid A group of a hundred strong local citizens have formed an alternative channel for Materiani to shape the program proposal for their city as European culture capital. This time this radical redefinition of content is … Continue reading →

It had to happen.  It was the eve of that emotional day when the original constellation of unMoaners would reduce itself to a solitary carrier of light who would be charged with inconclusively shutting the doors.  We needed closure. As … Continue reading →

In the unMonastery some subjects, though not technically taboo, remain unSpoken.  Were we to speak frankly about how much we appreciate each others efforts, it might open the Pandora’s box of something unImaginable.  Perhaps we fear that we might suffer … Continue reading →

The unMonastery Prototipo Matera saw its existence thanks to an almost unique moment. A group of citizens in the ancient but largely ignored administrative centre of the Basilicata region chose to systematically redefine themselves around questions of culture and inherent … Continue reading →

  all photos: Andrea Semplici 2013 Everyone comes out into the streets for mysterious reasons.  They are to partake in an immersion in their masses.  Boil it down to basics : they just might witness something.  The program has been … Continue reading →

It is an elemental truth in community service that to do anything at all is to risk censure. Everything one launches promotes a reaction; filling empty space implies that the space shouldn’t have been empty in the first place. To … Continue reading →

The recollection is faulty.  Having gone to the extreme of invoking a No Complaining Policy, it seems logical that even in those most playful early days the unMonasterians deemed it a necessary reaction to a creeping toxic atmosphere.  Was it an … Continue reading →

The Book of Greater and Lesser Failures – IV The absence of anything gives little food for Archeologists.  As Ola threw together the logo and flashed it up on his laptop, Ben wrote out UNMONASTERY in upper case.  It was … Continue reading →