Translator: Javi Garriz Reviewer: antonella broglia
You can travel around the world without seeing anything.
To fully understand, it's not necessary to see many things
but to look closely what's upon us.
Painter Giorgio Morandi spent most of his career
painting always the same objects:
jugs, bottles, cups, shells; they formed his little big universe.
Morandi found virtue within his own limits
and invited us to look closely, paying attention to all around us.
Maybe that same curiosity
is what nowadays drags millions of tourists
to travel around the world, searching for a different, alien reality.
Because when we are tourists, we transform ourselves
and we have the obligation of collecting images,
objects and any other element
that later on will enable us to remember our already lost other identity.
My question is, "Can we be tourists during the whole year?
Can we live everyday as perpetual tourists?"
Tourism is my source of inspiration.
Maybe that's why my job is to make souvenirs,
those little objects, that apparently have a life of their own,
and that, as Morandi used to say,
"lock a whole universe within them."
Everything started on this supermarket in London, right in the city center,
open 24 hours and providing a gigantic parking lot
that I used to find special and was almost empty night after night.
Being a private area,
only clients of the supermarket were granted access to it.
One client, one parking space for 3 hours.
Besides, the parking lot was, of course, watched by CCTV.
Things got interesting
when I finally realized that what was in front of me
was not a parking, but a tennis court, the biggest one in London.
(Laughter)
Because, in the end, it's the client that decides what to do with his own space.
So, for less than a pound,
four people can have their private, indoor tennis court
right in London's city center,
referee included.
(Laughter)
This is the game's trophy.
It's made exclusively with fruits and vegetables from the supermarket
and that's the souvenir I keep, proudly showing the ticket,
the legal document allowing
this transformation from private space into public event.
Not only that, but thanks to the Freedom of Information Act
I can use the supermarket's security CCTV
to record my own tournament on video.
(Laughter) (Clapping)
(Clapping ends)
This project reclaims the importance of public spaces
in our cities.
When later on I decided that I wanted to create my own souvenirs
in one of the most visited touristic monuments in the whole world,
the challenge became even bigger.
After months asking for permits with no answer at all,
this time I decided to bend the rules, hiding all the materials
and the necessary tools inside of sandwiches,
evading police control and creating the first illegal production of souvenirs
at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
These three kids: Eve, Alma and Océane, not only enjoyed their visit,
but also gave shape to their own memories;
each step, each second, each move
was transmitted to a rotational moulding system that after 30 minutes
unveiled a unique statue, unpaired,
faithful reflection of their own experience of that day.
Monument and tourist finally converse,
becoming the souvenir the link between them.
Months later I embarked on the Road to Santiago,
with a portable factory of souvenirs that worked exclusively
with the energy of my bicycle's energy.
The goal: a more authentic experience through this millenary route.
Each encounter, every place
was transmitted, translated, to a series of objects and events
that defied the recent commercialization of the Road.
During my journey I created all sorts of souvenirs: soccer trophies
for the best players of the village.
(Laughter)
I also worked with local craftspeople, almost extinguished trades,
creating together completely new product typologies,
such as this jet piece.
And I had unforgettable encounters,
like the one with these two wonderful ladies
that used the supermarket leaflet as an eyeshade
and inspired me to create...
(Laughter) (Clapping)
They inspired me to create
one of the most spontaneous products of the project.
This is the Three Gorges Dam, one of China's new touristic attractions,
where every year, thousands of tourists from all over the world
sail through the Yangtze river aboard luxury cruises.
But the Three Gorges Dam
is also the world's biggest hydroelectrical project
that flooded thousands of cities
and to this day
has forced the evacuation of more than four million people.
During my journey, I run into cities without name,
cities that are not on the maps anymore
but whose habitants refuse to abandon them.
The hidden side of a project
of almost unimaginable consequences and dimensions.
This is what's left of the old city of Fengdu
that is completely submerged.
At this point I decided to collect some water from the river
in a couple of plastic tanks,
that later on I decorated with traditional Chinese motifs.
As water becomes the precious souvenir of the missing city,
its container symbolizes the conflict between traditional Chinese culture
and the area's recent industrialization.
Similar to the conflict I personally experienced
when I realized those places retain a certain beauty.
A tragic beauty, it's true,
but also sublime, extraordinary, almost surreal.
And precisely that duality between the real and the unreal
was what pushed me to create a series of objects,
symbols capable of unveiling what photography can't,
making tangible the invisible.
Souvenirs documenting an almost disappeared identity.
My fascination for these forgotten, almost invisible, places,
led me to the mountains of Cilento's National Park
in southern Italy,
where several churches remain abandoned
after a series of earthquakes and the ground's instability.
Besides, these places were recently looted.
Most of their relics: saints, Madonnas... have been stolen or destroyed
leaving behind them an unimaginable void.
On the one side,
it's dreadfully sad that this heritage was lost this way.
But on the other side,
we stand upon a unique opportunity of transforming these places,
of reimagining their future.
The project I'm absorbed nowadays is called "Buona Fortuna" [Good luck]
and consists in the creation of new sculptures and installations
to substitute those that are missing.
Symbols inspired in the local tradition and culture
but with a noticeable contemporary character
that will give a new meaning to these places.
Next summer, this church will reopen to the public
after remaining closed for over 50 years.
We insist in considering tourism as a business, as an industry,
but I'm certain that a more sustainable and creative tourism
will help us build bridges among diverse places and cultures,
bridges that today, as we all know, are needed more than ever.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)