Gadgets Campari e tappi di bottiglia. L’appropriazione dello spazio attraverso le cose in un bar di quartiere a Macerata

Abstract

In this article I present the results of an ethnography carried out in a
neighborhood bar in Macerata. Here, practices are linked to a way of
living space that is anything but banal. Not only the bar finds itself
sharing neighborhood relationships and dynamics, becoming the neutral
place for these interactions to take place; it is also configured as a
practiced place, inhabited by its customers, who appropriate its spaces
through very personal ways.
Things – and material culture – play an essential role in this appropriation:
objects show a shared heritage of memories and externalize the
participation of customers in the everyday life of bar.
Part of this ethnography was conducted remotely, during the first
lockdown forced by Covid19. In this period, visual representations and
collages have been an important aid to my memory and they made
it possible to bring to the surface daily spaces, ordinary practices and
objects involved with a certain distance. After, when I came back to the
field, I decided to continue using visual representation that became not
just a support, but an important part in the final corpus of the research
project.