Silvia Bigi

“On 10 August 1985 an airplane crashed in the woods. A passenger woke up and despite serious injuries, decided to look for help.

Waiting for him were his wife, a nine-year-old son, and his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, as well as other relatives who – unaware of the events – were waiting to see him cross the sky. The passenger walked barefoot for hours before finding his way back. Everyone remembers the moment he reappeared but the newly born daughter, who will know everything, later, through her family.

That little girl was me.”

Cicatrici (“Scars”) was born out of the need to shed light on an event that has deeply marked my life and of which – ironically – I have no recollection. In the first months of life the cerebral cortex is not developed enough to retain memories, although somewhere they continue to exist within us. I decided to embark on a journey through memory and its mysterious processes, and a real journey, which aimed to retrace my father’s steps on that day, in search of traces still tangible in the present.

The project is made up of documents, witness accounts, photographs and installations that revolve around a missing image: the memory of my father re-appearing in front of my eyes. Although triggered by an intimate need, the research led me elsewhere. That day, in fact, my father had been on the plane to shoot aerial photographs of the region. While I surveyed the very same mountains using Google Earth, I came to realize the profound transformation that images have undergone in the 33 years since. The airplane wreckage in the woods thus ends my personal history, becoming veritable relics of a cult of photography that has since disappeared. The images are not the same, that is true. Nevertheless, my journey demonstrated how they continue to play a primary role in our lives”.

Project presente in Giovane Fotografia Italiana #07 | ROPES/CORDE

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