“Until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born.
When the forms exhaust their variety and come apart, the end of cities begins.”
from “The invisible cities”, Italo Calvino
Livorno Diaspora is an ongoing transmedia project which represents the foreign communities of Livorno through portrtaits and life of people and through the photographs taken by the children from “A.Benci” primary school.
A city of welcome born in the seventeenth century from the thrust of Medici’s Livornine laws, Livorno was one of the first cosmopolitan cities in the world where anyone would be allowed – by law – no matter their origins, culture or religion.
The project shows rituals and habits of the different communities. “Antonio Benci” primary school, located in the heart of Livorno, have a very high percentage of migratory origin and characterizes the identity of the neighborhoods that host them, becomes a symbolic place where different people merges in the same context. The children and their families.
In 2020 I activated the “Laboratory of photographic memory A. Benci” to build an archive over time through the eyes of children. Enrich their point of view by observing their growth. Photography courses as a learning to critical vision in which they are allowed to freely represent their surroundings and finally create exhibitions of photos and video installations to become aware of their work.
Recognize, in different cultures, a new form in which the territory is enriched by unknown lives without them losing contact with the land of origin. Today Livorno reveals itself in a new return to its origins with a population composed by a mix of different nationalities which add new components to the local culture, in a process of integration/dis-integration that makes the city an example of functional diversity.
Cities are always multiple, they can hide on themselves taking different forms, clear to the eyes or mental, hidden between thoughts and the exchanges that are consumed. Sometimes invisible like folds of the same surface. This is one of these cities between cities: Livorno. These are some of its potential invisible folds.
The video installation is the form that accompanies the work: a phantasmagoria of images and sounds shaped by places, colors, food, music and traditions brought by the diaspora. The sound is made up of environments and music recorded from different areas of the various communities. The images react to the rhythm and sound impulse glitching and merging with each other. At the same time, the children describe what they have photographed while their faces flow alongside their visions. Where possible, the physical environment is also installed, lining the walls with photographs printed on A4 sheets in black and white, repeated vertically.
The viewer is contained in a flow of which he finds himself a part. A set of fragmented memories in which we immerse ourselves and, transported by the emotional tension of sounds and images, we are stimulated to perception. Personal memory becomes universal.
LIVORNO DIASPORA – audiovisual installation
Audio-video installation (16:00), August 12-15th, 2022, Basse Maree Festival 2022, Fortezza Nuova, Livorno (1 minute short cut)
LIVORNO DIASPORA – audiovisual installation
Audio-video installation (4:17) August 7th-11th, 2021, Immersiva Effetto Venezia 21, Cantine del Monte dei Pegni, Livorno. (30 sec short cut)
Audio video installation (4:17) August 7th-11th, 2021, Immersiva Effetto Venezia21, Cantine del Monte dei Pegni, Livorno. (Full lenght)
LABORATORIO DELLA MEMORIA FOTOGRAFICA “A.BENCI” – audiovisual installation
Audio-video installation (3:57), August 7th-11th, 2021, Immersiva Effetto Venezia 21, Cantine del Monte dei Pegni, Livorno.
LABORATORIO DELLA MEMORIA FOTOGRAFICA “A.BENCI” (spot)
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