During the 1930s the fascist government launched a programme for the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes, one of the largest forested wetlands in Italy. In less than a few years the muddy and uneven ground of the forest was transformed into flat land to be cultivated and into solid surface where three new towns were built. Hegemonic narratives describe the fascist reclamation as a process that imposed a solid form upon the raw materials of nature, thereby establishing an unbridgeable divide between nature and culture, natural and built environment. The article challenges this dualism, drawing on ethnographic and historical materials to explore spatial and temporal zones in-between fluidity and solidity. It suggests an approach in which fluidity and solidity are understood as patterns of social and ecological relations rather than mutually exclusive properties of matter, thus exposing the continuity between them.

1930 年代，法西斯政府启动了一项开垦庞廷沼泽的计划，这是意大利最大的森林湿地之一。不到几年，森林里泥泞不平的地面就变成了可耕种的平坦土地，变成了坚固的地表，在那里建造了三个新城镇。霸权叙事将法西斯开垦描述为一个将固体形式强加于自然原材料的过程，从而在自然与文化、自然与建筑环境之间建立了不可逾越的鸿沟。这篇文章挑战了这种二元论，利用人种学和历史材料来探索介于流动性和坚固性之间的空间和时间区域。