Today we’d like to introduce you to Piercarlo Bormida Of Bardo.
Hi Piercarlo Bormida, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
To put it briefly, I was born in Northern Italy (1970s) into a family with a rather baroque family tree: noblemen, knights, tutors, and swordsmen, but also sailors from Northern Europe and Ethiopian princes. I spent my childhood in Africa and my adolescence in Europe, making a career out of electronic music. I combined a deep passion for the classics and technological innovation with a commitment to the spiritual path. I founded an independent record label and performed my music across Europe alongside iconic artists. But at a certain point, things changed: I decided to move to the countryside and return to a life in harmony with nature—sharing this radical choice with the partner I love. In 2020, during the pandemic, I wanted to launch something revolutionary and provocative, so I founded my own micronation. “Il Bardo” is a Duchy—a micronation that occupies actual territory rather than being confined to the virtual realm, a common trait of many others.
It grew out of an association of the same name, which since 2013 has focused on a model of communal living integrated with the environment and a highly proactive cultural vision. Il Bardo spans approximately 20,000 square meters within the woods of Torre Mondovì in southern Piedmont; its founders purchased a woodland property with an increasing emphasis on ecosophy. Since 2020, the Bardo project has manifested as an intentional micronation with a clear mission: to experience art as a response to degradation. What does “intentional” mean in this context? In a reality where human beings have been transformed into compulsive consumers, Il Bardo emerges on the stage of the “Fifth World,” effectively defining itself as a permanent performative act of awakening—or perhaps as a performative act that *is* an act of permanent awakening.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It was a journey driven by steadfast determination—not without its difficulties, yet always clear and illuminated by a fighting spirit. At times, I had to contend with the prejudice born of ignorance around me, but I also met invaluable friends who always knew how to look beyond appearances.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work represents two sides of the same coin: on one hand, I am a vibrational therapist and experimental electronic music producer (Ambient, IDM—I work regularly with a Minneapolis label, the legendary Electric Music Foundation, and a Los Angeles one, Synphaera Rec., as well as Neotantra); on the other, I am a ‘head of state,’ however small.
“Live your life as a work of art,” said Gabriele D’Annunzio!
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I want to leave a message for young people: with love, any goal can be achieved. I decided to turn a utopia into reality. Over the years, the *Ducato del Bardo* has become a local example of how it is possible to create beauty through intention, vision, and by making space for young people. We have the *Teatro Selvatico* (Wild Theatre), which is transforming people’s relationships with nature, with themselves, and with their surroundings—doing so without coercion, and with the awareness that a better world is possible. We adults must uphold the conditions that allow this to happen. Our time on this small planet in the galaxy is a unique opportunity; let us not waste it.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to express myself on your site; I haven’t owned a TV for several years now (fortunately).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bardomicronation.eu
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bardo_micronation/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bardomicronation
