Climbing without conquering: climbing as a gesture of freedom. It is the gentle revolution of the Brocchi on the Blocks
“We climb just for the pleasure of it,” says Amedeo Cavalleri, founder of Brocchi sui Blocchi. A few words that remind us how such a childish pleasure, that of having fun, is slowly slipping through our fingers. In an extremely performative society, capable of linking every action to a purpose, Amedeo Cavalleri, Davide Borgogno, Dario Cressoni and Roberto Mor try to remind us how, at least in climbing, this construct is structurally destined to collapse.
It is right there, on those blocks – the boulders on which bouldering is practiced, climbing without a rope – that this little rebellion takes place. With Amedeo Cavalleri we talked about how this discipline, affectionately defined as “the useless gesture”, can help all of us to better live the difficulties of everyday life.
Who are the Brocchi sui Blocco and why such a particular name?
“Brocchi sui Blocchi is a group of friends, even if we define ourselves as a collective that started climbing together eight years ago, now. In reality, we were a group quite different from what it is today, and the name was born during an amateur competition that they do here on Lake Garda, where I live. A friend of mine asked me: 'Come on, what are we going to do at this competition?'. And I replied: 'Let's go and do Brocchi sui Blocchi!'. Our name was born like that, to have a laugh over a beer. And this name was liked, so we changed the name of the WhatsApp group in which we organized ourselves to climb to 'Brocchi sui Blocchi. It all started like that, for fun. Then, at a certain point, I decided to open an Instagram page with the same name where, initially, we talked about who we were, our way of experiencing climbing, all quite… normal things, right? Because for us they were normal, it was our everyday life. However, we noticed right away, starting from the first 100, 200 followers, and those who followed us wrote to tell us: 'Wow, there are people who think like this; so, there is also this way of experiencing climbing'. At that point, we understood that it was something destined to create a bit of a disruption in the world of climbing, and we asked ourselves what direction we wanted to go. We knew from the beginning that we didn't want to become influencers, review products or do promotion. We wanted to talk freely about what was important to us, what we really liked. Often, political gestures are made without even realizing it: in our case, we started to build around us, in climbing, the environment that we were missing. We created a narrative that only with time we recognized as social”.
So, the ethical and militant narrative of the project appeared right away?
“Yes, the ethical dimension of the project came almost immediately because, let's say, it is a declination of our thinking applied to climbing. From the very beginning we created this narrative that, in hindsight, we realized was extremely political. Many ask us why such a political approach, but the reality is simply that we are like this, that was and is our way of experiencing everything and, consequently, also climbing”.
What are the core values of this ethical dimension that you integrate into climbing?
“Basically inclusiveness, environmentalism and anti-fascism. More generally respect, which we mean as respect for nature and people, but also trying not to colonize spaces. So, trying not to colonize the environment but, on the contrary, creating climbing places that are inclusive for everyone”.
How do you apply these principles in the contexts where you are active?
“The application of these values in climbing is actually quite simple, precisely because it is a movement of disruption of society that was born in Yosemite through the hippie movement. This is a movement that, in itself, seeks to create a subculture within society. What we do is a generational act, it is a narration of how we and our peers are looking for an escape route and a place to feel good in climbing, outside of a society that burdens us with anxiety, problems, economic and social crises and much more. What we do in practice is simply trying to have respect for people and the environment. When you go climbing, the first thing to remember is that you are a guest in a place, and that places do not belong to us, not even the climbing gym where we usually go. It is not that because we always go there it is ours by right, it is a place where many people hang out and you have to have respect in experiencing it. This is our message: experience climbing however you want, but remember that you are not alone”.
“Climbing is 99% failure,” he writes in his book, Getting Used to Falling. How does this phrase fit into today’s “performance society”?
“In my opinion, we live with it precisely because climbing reminds us that we can do things just for the pleasure of doing them. We stopped playing when we stopped being children. It is at that moment that we no longer did something just for the pleasure of doing it, forcing ourselves to always insert a purpose at the end of our actions. In climbing we rediscover the pleasure of playing. This discipline has always been called 'the useless gesture', because it does not bring any utility to the production system. It is through this uselessness that each of us can rediscover the power to carry out actions just to feel good. However, to begin to follow this path, we must also put ourselves in the perspective of being able to make mistakes. Precisely because it is useless we are able to accept failure better, perhaps because in the end, between succeeding and not succeeding, nothing changes. Sure, we like succeeding, but when we return home we are no different or better people. Climbing reminds us that paths are made of ups and downs, and that they need failures to reach the conclusion. It is starting from elements like these that we can remember that even in real life failure is not final, it is not a defeat forever. Failure, since we are people in the making, is part of the journey”.
What is the relationship between climbing and mountaineering today?
“Climbing was born as a break from mountaineering, with the abandonment of boots, knickerbockers, and camaraderie. It was born as a break. Then, as often happens, we forget the story a little and, in the meantime, the gesture gets mixed up with reality. So we arrive in Italy where, with a bit of general confusion, there are climbers who do mountaineering, mountaineers who do climbing, where if you climb people don't know what you're doing exactly. From this also comes a confusion of values that has led to the entry into climbing of those negative practices that characterize mountaineering as a reflection of society. It is up to us to remember that climbing was born as a break from mountaineering, as a choice to perform this useless gesture. Climbing is not an act of conquering spaces or the summit. It is an act of sport, of movement, it is an interaction with one's own limits and of inner discovery, but also of discovery through others. It is a different gesture, and this is where the break comes in. We live in a society extremely based on conquest. We are Western athletes, a colonial civilization within which we have become accustomed to going to K2 and calling it 'the mountain of the Italians'. We share an idea of appropriation of things. Then, I am not against mountaineering, just as I am not against tourism, for example. I am against some ideas of tourism such as, for example, mass tourism which, in mountaineering, involves leaving hundreds of tons of waste just to conquer a peak, polluting the aquifers of the most imposing mountains in the world”.
Speaking of conquest and colonialism, what is 'Boulder no borders'?
“The play on words 'Boulders no borders' was born during an event that we wanted to make different from the others. In the gym, we asked to trace the routes (design the movements to complete a route, ed. ) without cards indicating the grade of the block (the difficulty of the route, ed. ), so that the participants had to confront each other by breaking many mental limits that we usually impose on ourselves. This allowed everyone, during the event, to experience the project by focusing on the gesture, on the sport, on the community, outside of the limitations given by the fear of not being able to tackle a route (the route to complete the sequence of movements, ed. ) just because the grade indicated is too high. 'Boulder no borders' includes all these social and mental divisions, and tries to break them down”.
Your collective never reveals the difficulty of the routes it tackles, why?
“Nowadays, it seems that the grade is the most important thing of all. So, we forget about everything that goes beyond a climb: the sharing, the place, the sensations we felt, the beauty of the line. Many people, often, launch themselves on a slightly softer line just to say they have reached a certain grade. It may be a 'trunk' one meter high, but if the guidebook says 7a (an advanced grade, ed. ) everyone has to try it to be able to say they have sent a 7a. And this goes exactly against the logic of our sport, which was born as a discipline of discovery, of putting yourself into play. We want to remove the grade from the centrality that has been given to it. I'm not saying that the narrative of performance shouldn't exist, especially in the world of athletes, but we have to realize that it is a narrative of 1% of climbers, that is, of the privileged, and it is useless to spread the concept of 'train and you can do it'. Let's enjoy the climb, let's enjoy the lines, let's enjoy everything, let's try to enjoy everything around us, because nobody forces us to do so."
Bonus question, is there anything you would like to add?
“One thing that is very close to my heart in this period is the fact that, in my opinion, it is important to realize that in climbing, as well as in mountaineering, we men and, by extension, also women, have always had only one model of inspiration. The narrative has always been that of the strong man who goes and conquers because he is the strongest of all, and this allows him to reach a certain status. I believe that we all have an extreme need to change this narrative and create new models, because we are all different and we need to know ourselves and build ourselves as people. But we cannot build ourselves differently if we only have one model. We need new inspiration, and what we are trying to do with the Brocchi is also to give visibility to new paradigms or, in any case, to try to give a different narrative in which everyone can recognize themselves”.
Luce
