L’ecomuseo e il “quarto pilastro” del patrimonio. Tra storytelling e metanarrazione

The ecomuseum and the ‘fourth pillar’ of heritage. Between storytelling and metanarration Abstract In his volume L’Ecomuseo singolare e plurale, the ecomuseologist Hugues de Varine, drawing on the extensive variety of experiences that characterize ecomuseum projects, seeks to identify their foundational features by outlining three essential “pillars” that underpin community-based ecomuseum initiatives: territory, heritage, and community. This essay proposes an expansion of de Varine’s framework by introducing a fourth fundamental dimension of the ecomuseum experience — one that has thus far remained largely unexplored within anthropological discourse on place-based cultural initiatives. This “fourth pillar” is conceived as the discursive space, understood as the complex arena in which the ecomuseum engages with territorial narration. Through a critical examination of the role of storytelling in shaping spatial and institutional identities, and by exploring the relationship between the museum and discursive practices, the essay analyzes two case studies in which the narrative dimension — both territorial and metanarrative — emerges as particularly salient: the Ecomuseo Casilino Ad Duas Lauros in Rome and the MOSS - Ecomuseo Diffuso di Scampia in Naples.