Urban public space is a space of relationships, marked by bodies, meetings, randomness, by a spontaneous order that cannot accept anything other than rules of common sense and not of imposition, if we want call this space public. It is a stage for the lives of all of us, who want to stay on the foreground or in the background, protagonists or extras in the urban comedy and, as in any comedy, with a base of fiction and a shadow of truth.
But what happens if the actors leave the stage, if the bodies are denied to space? How do we perceive what remains walkable for us of streets and squares where we normally pass through and stay?
I invited the students who, over the years, attended the seminar “Photography as an instrument of urban investigation”, and some more friend, to send me images that document (and reflect on) the public space, cities and themselves in these days. As someone wrote me these are stolen images, and you feel guilty while shooting them. But documenting and reflecting is an activity all the more essential when a crisis is prolonged and touches the life of all of us.
Here I try to show what have been sent to me:
- Travel notes – Iacopo ZettiI had the opportunity, for a series of reasons, to cross Florence in the morning and evening in the past ...
- Social distancing in the park: Zurich – Philipp KlausSocial distancing in the park: Zurich - Philipp Klaus