Talea
Self assignment (2022-2024)
In botany, a "cutting"("talea", in Italian) is a fragment of a plant, usually a branch, that is cut and placed in soil or water to generate a new specimen. Therefore, "Talea" is the name of my first intimate photographic project. In the autumn of 2022, after the loss of my maternal grandparents, I had to leave the countryside home they built in the 1970s. This place, which was the heart of my summers during childhood and adolescence, has acquired an even deeper meaning following the passing of my grandparents. I was certain I would never find such a special place again. However, this year I was welcomed into my partner's small but cozy countryside home. Returning to a place that reminded me of my adolescence was like a trip to the past. This photographic series, composed of images taken this year and those captured during previous summers in my old home before its clearance, gave rise to a sort of "metaspace": an imaginary place where memories of the past and experiences of the present coexist. Like a flashback, an image from the past follows one from the present. Through this project, I sought to process the grief of losing my grandparents and accept the separation from the home to which I was so attached.
In addition to my own photographs, I included carefully selected archival images, thus amplifying the dialogue between past and present. The result is a visual narrative that reflects the emotional journey through time and space, where the boundary between reality and memory becomes blurred.
