“Sarai someone if you remain different from the others ”sings in 2020 Damiano David in the song twenty years.
Exactly 50 years earlier, in 1970, Massimo Ranieri presented the homonymous song to Canieri in which with disarming innocence he entrusted his good luck to a spiritual entity, “I believe that there was a smile for me too …”.
How our twenty years have changed and how different are. Frightened and disillusioned, attached to the screens in virtual solitudes, yet convinced that our uniqueness is precious and therefore must be protected, as we urge us to make the frontman of Måneskin. A more complex step in this present present of demons and nightmares that we believed we had buried in the previous millennium.
Be twenty years old
Twenty years is a mental condition, a state of the soul, the definitive tear from childhood, the abandonment of magnificent innocence.
Yet while we lived them, how many of us noticed the enchantment of that passage? At twenty years you look out on the world, a precipice whose bottom is not seen, but you look without fear. It is like being on the bow of the ship that sails and faces the immensity of the sea. An infinite horizon in which everything, but everything, seems possible.
European photography, the Festival
The curators of European photography That, to celebrate the 20th edition of the most prestigious Italian photographic festival, they entitled it, “be twenty years old”. From April 24 to June 8, next, in Reggio Emilia, exhibitions, workshops, talk, they will animate the rich program to investigate today’s young people.
Fragments, the project
to karla hirald voleau
Among the exhibitions of the Festival, there is the FRA MANTANTI project of Karla hirald voleauFranco-Dominican photographer, which we anticipate in these pages. A real investigation inspired by one of the masterpieces of our documentary cinema on the boys who approach the fateful age, as the author tells us in this interview.
How was the FRAMPS project born?
Fragments was born after seeing Pier Paolo Pasolini’s documentary rallies of love. I was struck by his project to travel through the country and asking common people delicate questions about sexuality and morality. It seemed to me a radical approach and I thought it would have been powerful to create something similar, but focused on today’s young people – the Z generation – to understand how they speak of love, relationships, gender, in a world that has changed so much by the masterpiece of ’64.
Was it difficult to relate to the boys?
No, above all because I think I am at an interesting distance from their age (it was born in 1992, editor’s note): not too close, nor too far away, this has created a nice dynamic. The majority opens easily, all participants are volunteers. I often have the impression that they do not make this type of conversations (on their feelings, hopes, sentimental life) regularly. It is a very particular generation that experienced Covid, has known #metoo and given the rise of new fascism in the same historical period. There is a lot of discussing.
Have you noticed differences between females and males in talking about their life?
I wouldn’t say. At this age it seems to me that the difference in expression has no thing to do with the genre, but with maturity. And maturity comes with experience, with challenges. In general, it was fascinating to listen to the different formations and origins. When I started the project I thought they were almost children, but I had forgotten how many things are absorbed as teenagers and how many are thought and already know each other.
As for the portrait, males and females come in front of its goal in the same way?
The girls are generally more used to being photographed, perhaps because of social media: they know their angles, their gestures, such as posing. The boys tend to be a little more rigid or reserved. But in the end, in this project it is important that there are no real poses and I do not want to create a hierarchy among the participants. We choose the installation, sitting or standing naturally, without artificial light, I focus on the group, on the overall search to create something unique.
To create fragments he has traveled in several regions: what differences has found between large and small towns or between the regions?
I would say that it varies more from one type of school to another, professional institutes, scientific or artistic high school. Without too surprise, it is the social class that divides us more. However, I am at the beginning of my project, so I can’t still draw conclusions.
If he were to give us an overview, what impression does he draw after meeting these guys?
I am very affecting their lucidity. The young people I met in Sardinia, Rome, Veneto and Emilia Romagna are incredibly aware of the challenges they face: they speak of anxiety, of an uncertain future, of gender issues, of emotional awareness. They are deeply critical of social media, but nobody, among the 128 teenagers I have seen, manages to imagine a future without his phone.
Is the project concluded or does it plan to expand it? It is certainly not over! My goal is to expand Fragments To all 20 Italian regions, because I believe that only in this way will it really reflect the diversity of young people. I collaborate with different high schools in each region and, to ensure that this happens, I am looking for regional and institutional support to cover travel and production costs. I also hope that fragments can become a wider dialogue platform, with events, conferences and school workshops. This is the dream!
What influenced your sentimental life?
I think it was the separation of my parents. The situation had become very heavy, they always ended to fight. Then my mother betrayed my father and, discovered the betrayal, the two broke up. Last year I was engaged to a boy. He too had a heavy family situation, we understood us. He was my point of reference, since I no longer had the figure of my father. I think for a woman it is important to have a man who protects her. I thought it was love because I felt a very strong jealousy. Then in the classroom, also talking about it with my teacher, I realized that something was not going in the right direction, I had exchanged jealousy for love.
Anastasia, 17 years old, Venice
How important are love and romantic relationships?
For now I have only had friendships with girls. I have a boy, I don’t know, I think if I made friends with other guys for me it would be a little strange. He is not jealous, I’m the jealous one! For example, if he speaks with other women he makes me strange. I think it derives from the relationships that I lived in my family. Those of my generation have little or no confidence in their partners. It is probably due to our age, but perhaps also to the fact that we are used to doubting everything, always.
Can you describe me a free woman?
I think it is difficult to find a woman who feels truly free without the fear of being judged by other women or on the other sex. All always feel judged when they want to express their freedom. If it existed, however, it would be a woman who, not only has the courage to express herself, but is also aware that there will always be someone who disagrees or even is against her.
Do you take your friends how do you do with your friends?
There are things that are normalized for men and I recognize that women certainly have many more problems. A free woman for me is one who can go around dressed as she likes and say what she wants, work anywhere you want. I am aware of the disparity, of course, for this reason I try to treat people in the same way, regardless of sex, age, gender, opinions. And that’s the line, isn’t it? For me, the woman is free when I treat it in the same way as men or anyone in front of me.
Vishal, 18 years old, Reggio Emilia
Do you think that girls have more security today?
I do not know. I don’t go looking for girls. I wait for them to look for me. I don’t go to the disco, I never went there, in fact I don’t know how women are there, what they do. But it seems to me that women believe they have something more than males, they think they have one more step, I don’t want to say power, because it is not a power, it is something more. For example, they can choose who to go to bed with. It is a power that men do not have.
Veronica, 18 years old, Venice
What is a love relationship for you?
I was in a toxic relationship for two years. I didn’t realize it until the end. I pretended nothing, the others make you point out, you see it, but you say to yourself that it is not so. I was not lucid, I found refuge in him. It was obsessed with me, I couldn’t have friends, dressed as I wanted, I always had to send the photo of how I left the house and write every two minutes where I was. If he left, he made me checked by his friends. He also raised his hands against me. I started having nightmares and power problems. I was only 14 years old. After leaving it I was long alone. Even today I am afraid when a boy or men talk to me about the street or tram. © RESERVED REPRODUCTION
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