Archivio audiovisivo di Capriasca e Val Colla

Voices and gazes of a community, since 2005

Photographic and sound archive; more than 11,500 photographs and 150 hours of interviews

PHOTOGRAPHY

Archivio audiovisivo di Capriasca e Val Colla
Casa comunale, 6957 Roveredo (Capriasca)
Exhibition room: Monday 2–5 pm, Saturday 2–5.30 pm, by appointment
info@acvc.ch
acvc.ch · acvc-flt.com

Images: © Archivio audiovisivo di Capriasca e Val Colla, courtesy of the archive

A tram crowded with men in hats stands in front of Tesserete station, with people on the tracks

Inaugural journey of the Lugano–Tesserete railway, 1909

The archive

The Archivio audiovisivo di Capriasca e Val Colla collects, safeguards and returns to the population and to anyone interested the images and oral testimonies that make up the memory of the region.

From school to archive

It all began in the 2000–2001 school year: a group of pupils from the Scuola media in Tesserete, led by their teacher Maurizio Cattaneo, looked for old photographs among relatives and neighbours and digitised about 600 of them. Between 2001 and 2003 Chiara Camponovo, with a cantonal research grant, continued the work with Memoria fotografica. L'archivio fotografico e sonoro di Capriasca e Val Colla: more than 2,500 images collected and catalogued.

On 15 June 2005, on the initiative of Carla Borla, then a member of the Capriasca municipal council, the Associazione Memoria audiovisiva di Capriasca e Val Colla was founded; she chaired it until 2012. From September 2007 a major donation from Piera Storni made it possible to resume research, digitisation and cataloguing. Since 2015 the archive has been part of the network of regional ethnographic museums recognised by the Canton of Ticino.

What it holds

The archive holds more than 11,500 selected photographs and over 150 hours of interviews with more than 100 elderly informants from Capriasca and Val Colla. The images come mainly from private individuals, who grant the right of reproduction: festivals, landscapes, inaugurations, trades, religious practices, emigration, the building of houses and roads, weddings and portraits. Photographs and interviews are catalogued according to the standards of Memoriav and the Swiss National Sound Archives.

A research project on the monastery of Santa Maria di Bigorio and on liturgical traditions added about 600 images and 30 hours of interviews. In recent years small paper collections have also arrived – school exercise books, diaries, letters, deeds – as well as the papers of the poet and teacher Ugo Canonica. On acvc.ch more than 9,000 records can be consulted, searchable by place, author and iconographic class.

Exhibitions, books and trails

Together with the Cultural Commission of the Municipality of Capriasca, the archive organises the «ClickCapriasca» exhibitions (2020, 2022, 2024), in which images of the past enter into dialogue with those of today. Other exhibitions include «Vincenzo Vicari. Ascoltare la fotografia» (2020, with the Amici del Torchio di Sonvico) and «Enrico Besomi. Oltre l'architettura» (2026).

Its publications include volumes 5 and 6 of Documenti orali della Svizzera italiana, devoted to the dialects of Capriasca, Val Colla and the left bank of the Cassarate, with the Centro di dialettologia e di etnografia; Tutto parla di te (2016), Uno sguardo al femminile (2020), Con il canochiale o veduto tre camozze... (2020), Ricordi capriaschesi di ragazzo (2022) and Per antica consuetudine by Rolando Fasana (2025).

Along the route of the Lugano–Tesserete railway (1909–1967), now a cycle path, an exhibition trail created in 2017 and renewed in 2025 tells its story with photographs and interviews. The association also looks after the Torre di Redde, in the woods of Vaglio.

The association

The Associazione Memoria audiovisiva di Capriasca e Val Colla has about 300 members; membership is open to all. Its president is Nicola Arigoni; the archive's curator is Katia Piccinelli. It is regularly supported by the Canton of Ticino, through the Centro di dialettologia e di etnografia, the Municipality of Capriasca, the City of Lugano and the Fondazione Piera Storni.

In the town hall of Roveredo, next to the office, an exhibition room presents a selection of images and excerpts from the interviews; the entire catalogued photographic archive can be consulted there.

Inaugural journey of the Lugano–Tesserete railway, 1909