- New alliances
La ville qui parle is a visual narrative with the aim to investigate the complex relationship between citizens and urban environment.
It is a research focused on words, sentences, texts and - more in general - signs and expressions left on the surfaces of buildings.
We are interested in the intersection between written language and the unconscious city.
In how the citizen uses the city as support and device to connect with others, to appropriate a space or simply to talk loudly.
In how these surfaces can activate and stimulate a plural dialogue.
We are interested in this particular form of emotional interaction, which we like to refer with the name city-empathy.
How do buildings talk with citizens? How do they contribute to build people imaginaries? Are they capable to create a connection with everyday users? Are they capable to inspire values?
La ville qui parle looks for answers and new questions.
It looks for hidden meanings.
It looks for hidden cities.
Culture is a map that makes experience intelligible. It is a map of who, as a whole, we think we are; our values, our art, our intellectual efforts, our gossip, our history.
For culture the map can become the territory.
The great diversity of surfaces affecting the city and their public spaces has the potential to activate and stimulate a collective dialogue. Walls of the cities are blank pages: signs and words are contemporary ornaments.
La ville qui parle has been launched on Instagram, and through the hashtag everyone in any moment can contribute to collect city-empathy signs.
Due to its intrinsic ability to merge the written language to images, we believe Instagram is the best medium to host this form of meta-representation.
Signs and words often change very quickly. There is a parallel between such speed and the rapidity of posting an image through social media.
La ville qui parle / Pictures taken in Paris
La ville qui parle / Pictures taken in Venice
