Cities, like dreams, are built of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules absurd, their perspectives deceptive, and everything hides another
Italo Calvino
What is the substance that dreams are made of? And do cities dream?
The technique of double exposure allows Lia Taddei to offer our gaze, prostrated by massive doses of reality, a magical escape.
The author constructs her own invisible city, along the lines of what Calvino defined: "built of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules absurd, their perspectives deceptive, and everything hides another".
Taddei's invisible city is an ephemeral, illusory reality, a world discontinuous in space and time in perpetual change. An unreal space where people move as if in search of a lost identity and seem to become part of the surrounding environment. We perceive human presences as vague ghosts, as inconsistent as the relationships that we still try to keep alive in this post-pandemic era. Beyond the screen of bright colors and perspectives multiplied by lights and shop windows, in Taddei's work the disillusionment of human things is evident, the anguish for a sought-after truth that when reached never really reveals itself as such.
Hell for the author's poet, Italo Calvino, was in the here and now on earth, in the relationships that men weave with each other every hour and every day. There is only one way to save oneself: "to seek and to know how to recognize who and what, in the midst of hell, is not hell, and to make it last, and to give it space." Taddei sends us her message of hope in a bottle with this work, who among us will have the courage to pick it up?
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Qual è la sostanza di cui sono fatti i sogni? E le città sognano?
La tecnica della doppia esposizione permette a Lia Taddei di offrire al nostro sguardo, prostrato da massicce dosi di realtà , una magica evasione.
L’autrice costruisce la sua personale città invisibile, sulla falsariga di quelle che Calvino definiva:” costruite di desideri e di paure, anche se il filo del loro discorso è segreto, le loro regole assurde, le prospettive ingannevoli, e ogni cosa ne nasconde un’altra».
La città invisibile della Taddei è una realtà effimera, illusoria, un mondo discontinuo nello spazio e nel tempo in perpetuo mutamento. Uno spazio irreale dove le persone si muovono come alla ricerca di una identità perduta e sembrano diventar parte dell’ambiente circostante. Percepiamo le presenze umane come vaghi fantasmi, inconsistenti come le relazioni che in questa epoca post pandemica tentiamo ancora di mantenere vive. Oltre lo schermo dei colori accesi e delle prospettive moltiplicate dalle luci e dalle vetrine , nel lavoro della Taddei è evidente il disinganno delle umane cose, l’angoscia per una verità ricercata che quando raggiunta non si rivela mai davvero tale.
L’inferno del resto per il vate dell’autrice, Italo Calvino era nel qui e ora sulla terra, nella relazioni che gli uomini intessono ogni ora e ogni giorno gli uni con gli altri. C’è un solo modo per salvarsi: “cercare e saper riconoscere chi e cosa, in mezzo all'inferno, non è inferno, e farlo durare, e dargli spazio.” La Taddei ci manda il suo messaggio di speranza in bottiglia con questo lavoro, chi di noi avrà il coraggio di raccoglierlo?
Bio Lia Taddei
I am an amateur photographer who has been passionate about photography since I was a girl. A passion, revived only in recent years after a long period of inactivity, which today has become a way to express one's emotions and to share them with others. I love to travel and photograph people in their environment, to get in touch with different cultures. When I can't travel I'm looking for new stimuli and I try to experiment with different ways of photographing, I look for new points of view. Photography is now part of me and I never miss an opportunity to deepen my knowledge.
I have participated in various workshops, photo trips and competitions.
In 2021 I was first classified at the 33rd Photographic Grand Prix, black and white section, organized by the Fincantieri Wartsila Photographic Club of Trieste.
Some of my photos were exhibited at the Trieste Photo Days 2021 Festival.
One of my travel reports has been selected for the Travel Tales Award contest and has been exhibited in the dedicated exhibition at Otto Rooms & Gallery (Rome). Some articles accompanied by my photos have been published in the online magazines "Dialoghi Mediterranei" and "TravelGlobe". I have participated in various collective photographic projects which have been followed by the related publications in dedicated volumes.
