By 1980 Bussana Vecchia had changed in many ways. The number of more or less full time residents was around hundred and fifty people. A number of the original members of the community had sold their houses in some cases to people with no artistic background. The rise of tourism stimulated thoughts of the fast financial gains possible in summer. This gave rise to new people from outside finding veritable spaces within the village to use as shops or galleries, changing the quality and quantity of the work on sale.

The San Remo Council during 1980 began to show an interest in Bussana Vecchia, having plans drawn up and ordering a survey and report on the village. The inhabitants, who at the time had no rapresentative group structure formed another organization : the New Community of International Artists, N.C.I.A., whose function was to speak for Bussana Vecchia as a whole in any matter concerning its future development.

 

 

In 1982 the N.C.I.A. became an official legal organization. The San Remo Council not feeling able to cope with the " Bussana Vecchia riddle ", launched the idea of an international contest among architets on the 29th October 1982 for plans to redevelop the village. In a meeting on the 3rd of November 1982 with the San Remo Council a " special commission " group was formed comprising two San Remo councillers, one person from Bussana Nuova and three people from Bussana Vecchia.

They had to draw up a report on the major areas of concern within the village. Even thoughit was an official report, there were no guarantees when the work would be carried out. The rules of the international contest for Bussana Vecchia were realized on the 1st July 1983. Towards the end of 1983 a number of people from Bussana Vecchia could prove that their houses had been occupied for ove 20 years and hence make official legal statements to that effect, this being the first step on the path towards legal ownership.

The inhabitants of the village has been forced to spend too much of their energy and time defending themselves from bureaucratic attacks, rather than the creative work they came here to do. It should be remembered that to choose to live in Bussana Vecchia required great sacrifice end material discomfort. By way of compromise they set up two organizations. The N.C.I.A. and the Laboratorio Aperto.

To create structures where in they could plan a legal defence and at the time work at the preservation and development of activities based on art, crafts and research. They both functioned successfully for a number of years, but the endless meetings necessary to discuss what should be done was so time consuming that there was a conflict between defending ourselves and finding time to work.

Out of necessity, people chose tu put their time into working and could give less time to the organizations. There were some who were not in a position to claim squatters rights "usucapione " and were misled into believing that a compromise could be reached with the authorities. Others discouraged by the endless legal wrangling and horrified by the mounting costs they could no longer afford, gave up.

We built our own individual space within a collective structure which is the village, its urban framework and social patterns changed by the earthquake of 1887. An experience of taking possession of space and territory which hasn' t got the like, for quality and quantity, in the phenomenon of spontaneous architecture in Italy.

We imagine a future where we would like to see operative structures able to help us show our work, music, theatre, painting, graphics, pottery, sculpture, poetry, jewellery and compare it with the work of outsiders, both artists and crafts men, who could use the space as we do.