Take Me to live with you
December 2 – 31, 2021
A Social Family Album
When I was a child, I liked to build houses for fun, and imagined living in them. I have always loved visiting the homes of others, not so much to see how people lived their daily lives, but in order to try and understand them better, and in my turn feel accepted by them, becoming part of their lives.
Being close, or better still, living together with people who have cultural, social, civic or political values I share, values I believe should be passed on to future generations, is surely enriching. These people, from this point of view, could be considered ideal parents, precisely because during their lives they have embodied fundamental values. Some of them I felt close to in childhood or adolescence: teachers, songwriters I loved, friends of my father. Others are figures that I missed when I was young, like feminists, who I discovered later. They have been fundamental for a personal growth I still believe is possible, despite having left my childhood and adolescence behind me a long time ago.
My father was a politically engaged magistrate, who gave me many positive values, even though he didn’t want to take me to live with him. With time, I came to realize that I had always been looking for a father and another house in which to live, where the atmosphere I thought I had lost could be palpably felt. For this reason, after his death I asked certain people to whom I felt drawn, to take me to live with them.
My aim was to continue to share a life that in reality I had never been able to live and at the same time pass on to others an inheritance in terms of values and everyday life that will soon be lost, as all these people are the same age, or are older than my father. Some are very well-known throughout Italy, others only in Bologna, my city. Through them and their generosity in welcoming me into their houses, I hope I am also able to tell an Italian story from a personal point of view: from ‘God is dead’, by Francesco Guccini, sung by Nomadi – a disc I listened to as a child and still have – to the Auschwitz deportations, to the Partisans’ struggle; from the massacre of Monte Sole to the fight against terrorism and the mafia; passing from feminism to demands for the rights of women, ending with the massacre of Capaci and Via d’Amelio, and in the failures of our Republican government. Even there ‘God is dead.’ But if God dies, it is for three days only, and then He rises again.
Sonia Lenzi (Italian, b. 1964) is a photographer and visual artist. Her artistic practice adopts an interdisciplinary approach and revolves around interrelated themes, concerning identity, memories of people and places, mortality and gender. She uses photography to investigate, establish and recreate social relationships through signs, symbols and gestures. She graduated initially in Philosophy at the University of Bologna, then from the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts with a degree in Painting, finally graduating in Law. Her photographic project, ‘It Could Have Been Me’ (2015), was shown as an installation at Bologna High Speed Railway Station and presented at MAMbo, Museum of Modern Art in Bologna, ‘Lares Familiares’ was performed in Naples and first exhibited at the Archaeological Museum (2016), and then at the Italian Cultural Institute in London (2019). ‘Last Portrait’ was presented at the Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths College, University of London (2019). She lives and works in Bologna and London.
