Gisbert Lippelt Low Cost Life

A unique photographic portrait. Sustainable living of a former German ship officer in a cave at Filicudi, a small island in the middle of the Mediteranean sea. Gisbert Lippelt Low Cost Life has been exhibit in Belvedere Gallery/ December 2008 and in this moment in the FotoGrafia Festival of Rome 2009 Thirty-eight years ago, he decided to completely change his life and moved to Filicudi, a small island in the Aeolian Arcipelague near Sicily. In search of a sustainable and simple existence, Gisbert made his home in a cave on a top of an hill, overlooking the see and making his dream of life in total accord with nature. Gisbert Lippelt, the “Cave Man,” is a German former ship’s officer who fell in love with Eolian Islands, located near Sicily, some 38 years ago. He took an immediate decision-quit his job (second mate of a luxurious cruise ship), gave away all his property to local peasants as a gesture of liberation, and began a trip backwards into history, you might say back to the future. He chose as his “professors” the oldest peasants on the island and has determinedly studied their folk craft and ways of life. For a dwelling he has built a marvelous cave in the most beautiful part of the island, he lives by collecting rain water (there is no groundwater) and wood and herbs. Candle light and live fire keep him company, beautifull view with numerous volcanoes substitute him theatre and art galleries. He eats only what grows wild around him. Thus he has resolved the question of money and bills: the first isn’t needed because the second never arrive. He’s become an expert in the archeology and history of the islands, knows hidden caves with ancient instruments left from the old times, and secret reservoirs of water. He knows forgotten paths which lead into the depth of a long-lost past, further back than the Empire of the Caesars. The Eolian islands, in the meantime, have been “discovered” by executives from Rome and Milan, whose villas dot (or rather mar) the landscape. The standard of living has become high and most local peasants have forgotten their roots. They live by tourism. Paradoxically, German Gisbert is the only knowledge keeper of the rich, ancient peasant civilization of the place, where people once lived in harmony with nature. Ironically, almost everything he has copied from that civilization (and it’s laws had worked for centuries), is today illegal. He is tolerated and “pardoned” by local officials, which focuses on his eccentricity, forgetting to ask deeper question Text adapted from Lada Alekseychuk web site ( lada_alekseychuk@tiscali.it )

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Keywords gisbert lippelt low cost life sustainable living german ship officer cave filicudi island mediteranean aeolian arcipelague sicily carlo bevilacqua