Paola Rizzi
Paola Rizzi born in 1964 in Vigevano where she lives and has a photographic studio. She graduated in Art and Visual Communication. Her photograph of her is divided into a commissioned part and a personal one focused on the dynamics between man and the environment, which she combines with the use of different artistic techniques and materials. Collective exhibitions Italy and abroad: Biennale Italy China in Beijing, Trieste Photo Days, Florence Biennale, Rome Turin Paratissima, Caldogno Vernice Art Prize, Venice VisioniAltre Gallery, Genoa Biennale, Photissima Art Fair Turin, Milan Photofestival, Rosignano Photo Festival; personal “I am here” in Milan under the supervision of Paola Riccardi. Selected for the 17 Graffi project for the 50th anniversary of the Piazza Fontana massacre, Awards and recognitions: BWA Rome, Lynx, Mifa, IPA. Winner of the Portfolio Sirene Award 2020 and of the open call for the selection of projects to be exhibited in 2022 at the TPD Trieste with “Personal Constellations”.
Personal constellations
There are people in the world who, if they are in the presence of cell phones, computers and Wi-Fi, feel bad and have to move away from them. They call them “electrosensitive” and it seems their bodies can’t handle being near electromagnetic fields. Yet, in a society like ours, this means isolating oneself and getting away from everything and everyone. Especially now that 5G is arriving in Italy. Compared to other jobs already faced by others, I immediately felt the urge to deepen not so much the generic aspect but the knowledge of a person in a specific way: Erika. Like me, Erika lived in Vigevano, a town that is part of a territory with apparent beauty but which in fact hides something else.
Erika has been suffering from hypersensitivity to electromagnetic fields (EHS) for many years, she lives as a recluse and many things are now practically forbidden to her (work, social life but also travel). The electrosensitive are “invisible” for all sick people. Electromagnetic fields have always existed but artificial ones have been added to those that are of natural origin, modern man leads his life immersed more and more in electromagnetic fields
Erika, like many other patients, lives in an “invented” dimension to survive she created her personal constellation, for years now she has been forced to shield herself with clothes and headdresses she herself made with special metal alloy fabrics. I met her silent hope in that cyclical time made up of days that become weeks., Waiting for something to change. Erika’s days are alike, like her clothes always the same, like her horizon, her living spaces imitated. Telling a week about Erika is the same as telling about a month or a year.
With this photographic project, which has become an artist’s book, I want to focus on the quality of life that should be more important than the standard of living, inviting us to understand those who have been forced into deprivation for too long and perhaps turning our gaze to this pandemic period that has deprived everyone of many freedoms may be easier.
