Gianni Zattoni #2002 #ReggioEmilia This is the story of someone who, in our town, dedicated body and soul to the board — helping make skateboarding a phenomenon that goes far beyond simply pushing on a piece of wood. 

Maybe some people have forgotten by now — but we haven't.

Mali drew what became the logo of our skatepark, the STR in Reggio Emilia. Over the years it would become the symbol of everything: a small figure balancing on a skateboard, inspired by Elia, the founder of the project and president of the association that managed a former basketball court on Via Premuda.

That drawing first appeared in the skatepark's communications — on personalised membership cards — of an association that, since the '90s, had been organising events and contests through the pure volunteering of passionate young people, during a crisis period for skateboarding that inspired many.

Skaters came from all over Italy to gather in a unique atmosphere: everyone with their own role, everyone with their own energy, all driven by the same spirit of doing — and very often, the same participants who had come just to have fun ended up lending a hand to finish the work and all the preparations, including: painting metal sheets, cutting and screwing wooden panels, mowing the grass, setting up the stand and the DJ set, loading the prizes, coordinating judges, speakers and athletes, cleaning up, and throwing a proper barbecue.

For some reason, things were sometimes ruined by sudden downpours — which led every single participant to dry out the ground just to make sure the long-awaited contest could go ahead and put on a show of tricks on the beloved ramps built with passion.

Over time we understood that logo was worth more than an image. It captured a concept that had matured through years of asphalt, falls, and laughter: "you can have fun by finding your own balance in your passions." From that awareness, the ANEEMA project was born.

This space is not meant to be the subject of controversy, which is why we ask you not to treat it as an orderly, systematic narrative. It is simply an unplanned diary, a place to resurrect the best memories — those that time has buried but not erased. We will tell them as we go, for those who were there and want to remember, and for those who weren't and want to understand where we come from.