At the beginning it had the form of experiment; how was it possible that in so many years I have never done portraits, especially to the people closest to me?
But I didn’t want any poses, no artifice. I wanted them to be as they are when they’re with me, at the maximum of naturalness.
And how are they when they’re with me? – I thought. They talk.
Then, from mere technical exercise, this pastime has become a kind of photographed conversation.
In many years of chatter and nights, I have discovered that the people around me are a mine and, digging a little, their nuggets are not that different. Once the superstructure of the environment in which they grew up are removed, desires, fears and ideas are always those. But every now and then it’s good to hear them said by someone else, by a friend who put into words what is still shapeless in your head.
When it happens, then you have found the treasure.
Answer to the question I have been asked most lately: how did you come up with this idea?
1. Silvia
Everything that is artistic. But lately I have also become convinced that it’s more the political side of what I study. Everything we do has an impact on the world. There are artistic forms in which this is more evident and which manage to intervene more openly on the world.
For example in my thesis, I am thinking about posthumanism, which is this theoretical line in which many instances of contemporary equality are included: the relationship between human and non-human (such as man-animal) but also human and less human (like the woman or the foreigner). I am interested in how theatre and performance deal with these; in short, the artistic application.
Art always makes you think about the world in which you live, and reflecting is the first step to change, to having a different a look, a different possibility.
Answer to the question: what do you feel passionate for?
2. Gerry
Yes I am, even when it doesn’t seem so. To be happy, for me, means that somehow there is a truth that lives in me and that does not abandon me. Whatever happens in life, I know that I’m not lost and that everything contributes to something good. And I am happy because, recalling my past a little bit, I know that at some point in my life I decided to try to be happy and decided that I, too, had the right to desire. So, I decided that happiness was my thing. And I wouldn’t go back.
Happiness, in addition to serenity, involves an awareness: it is a choice. That is, you choose something that makes you happy despite everything. You can be happy – sorry for the term – in the mountain of shit. It’s not smiling like a jerk. It’s really an identity, something that comes out of you. People see if you’re happy; and they get infected.
Answer to the question: are you happy?
3. Lidia
To die instantly without being able to call anyone, without being able to save myself. And then, to go to a place where I don’t feel safe. But I probably don’t feel safe anywhere. Let’s say fear is my life. The only safe place is the streets of Milan at night, which are not safe at all.. Very nonconformist! Psychopathy leads you to radical nonconformity, I would say.
Answer to the question: what are you afraid of?
4. Alessandro
A river comes to my mind right now.
Maybe it’s because I have The Prophet by Gibran in mind, which is one of my absolute favourite books. He speaks of the life-death relationship as a river that enters the sea. But actually I would compare it to a river because life is something dynamic, something that has progress, even at non-regular rhythms. And the river itself, compared to the sea, has this idea of flowing and never stopping. You cannot try to stop it because if you do, you create a dam. And that is something unnatural and you cannot hold it back forever. Sooner or later the dam will fill up and this block is destined to burst if you don’t give it a break.. Or even, the river dries up, or goes away seasonally.
So, in short, my interpretations of the metaphor are infinite; you could create an entire ontological theory on the river.
Answer to the question: what is life?
5. Emanuele
I don’t like talking to everyone but only to those who understand. I am probably talking to some people who are not always well within themselves or with others, and I want to tell them that sometimes you can think that you are bad because you are weak and fragile, and that is a curse. But instead, most of the time you are only sensitive, and this is a gift that life gave you. And it is what generates good. It is what will change things: your own life and that of others. This gift must be known in order to use it and must be guarded carefully, and those who feel this way will understand that.
When you are at the party, and you are in the midst of everyone having fun, and you are not having fun, and nobody simply considers you, then this is not your place and it is not a problem that it is so. You just have to accept it and leave.
Outside you’ll find someone who thinks like you. Once you have made this decision, the night will always be young enough to find your place.
Answer to the question: what message would you leave for humanity?
6. Mari
That one should not give up, that a thousand doors close but a bigger one always opens. That we are never alone, that there are many people who love us, few who accept us as we are. Never lose your smile, even if dark moments await us.
The more you grow, the worse it is. I’m sorry to tell you, but it’s true.
Answer to the question: what did you learn from life?
7. Marco
As a child, it was of snakes. I kept dreaming about them. One night I woke up because I was attacked by them, I said to myself ‘Fuck it, I’ve had enough’. I returned to the dream – I still remember it – with a submachine gun, I killed them all and since then, I have not been. No, jokes aside.
My biggest fear is looking back one day and realising that I have wasted time. I would define it like this. It happens to me every day. I think it started out as a fear of death when I was seven or eight years old and then turned into this. Because you imagine that you are at the end of your life (and so you are afraid); then that fear turns into looking back and at least not having wasted everything.
Answer to the question: what are you afraid of?
8. Nicolò
That the individual counts for nothing. That humanity is important as collective concept. That we should stop worrying about the people who exist at this moment and should start worrying about the very future of humanity. That scientific research is the most important thing that exists and that it should not be held back. A condition should be reached in which every human being is immortal. Because in the end, the source of every person’s problems is that time is limited. If time wasn’t limited, we wouldn’t miss it; because the shortcomings that we feel, we feel because we are afraid that we will not be able to achieve what we want to achieve in the time of our life.
Everything revolves around time. The only way to solve this is for humanity, by scientific progress, to arrive at a condition where time is unlimited, that is, biological immortality.
Answer to the question: what message would you leave for humanity?
9. Anastasia
To learn to think a little more about her. Even though I know I would never have listened to myself at the time, because I don’t listen to myself now, and I will probably not listen to myself in the future. In my family they taught us to be responsible from an early age on, to take care of various things. Living as children was rare. When I look at all that I experienced, I now certainly face life very differently. I am happy that I was how I was, because by facing these things I became stronger, and I liked growing up like this. It’s true that I suffered a lot, that I gave up many things, that I didn’t have the usual perhaps stupid experiences. But on the other hand, I know that now I will perhaps face life as an adult much more prepared than my peers.
Answer to the question: what advice would you give to your few-years-ago self?
10. Ansperto
There is one that buzzes in my head, which was also my thesis. I wrote a children’s book. And in my story there was this episode in which one day, my father took me to the countryside. That afternoon he had visibly drunk too much. As soon as he came out of the door he tapped a scooter and tried to leave; after which I called the police and had his license withdrawn. He felt blind hatred for me, hatred which he abandoned within a week. But what I learned then is that the arrogant must not be endured, must be opposed. Because enduring is an incitement to the divine Providence of the nineteenth-century novels. And instead, it is right that from a young age, one understands that there are behaviours that must be opposed. They must be opposed starting with yourself, from the inner process in which you manage to tell the right from the wrong. Then, this can be translated into concrete behaviour if desired, into an opposing stance. Taking a stand is very important to me.
Answer to: Tell me a a story in which you learned something.
