Chiara Caselli

KōAN

I met Maria and Jojo last summer, on an island; they were in love, "fresh in love" as Shakespeare says in the only verse I can remember by heart. Looking at them I saw what I couldn't live. Then, one day, while I was in postproduction trying to focus, I read this kōan, the apparently paradoxical sentences the Tao masters give to their pupils.

We left each other ages ago, although we have never been apart.

All day we are face to face, yet we never met.

L'ASSENZA – ALLA LUCE DEL RICORDO

Molly is the main character in the final chapter in James Joyce's novel Ulysses. We first met when I was still small: I was twelve and mother took me to the theatre to see a play where the role of Molly was taken by the outstanding Italian actress, Piera degli Esposti. It was an unforgettable encounter. At about that time I began taking photographs. Although the link with Molly only became clear to me many years later, when the desire to convey my inner life in visual images became the most important aspect of my quest as a photographer.

My real immersion in the text and images of Molly began in 2010. It was a long journey involving constant development and diverse means of expression: from Joyce's text to its theatrical adaptation, from a play performed at the Spoleto Festival to my short film presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2016. I shot these photographs in Molly's bedroom, in the 1940's house where I filmed my short movie; one year later, when I was told the house had been sold, I went there for the last time, to say goodbye.

FATA MORGANA

The horizon as a transcending reality, the space between you and into the infinite. It is the gift I received at my first arrival in Ginostra, the wild side of the Sicilian island of Stromboli: Fata Morgana, as they call this phenomenon there, coming up from the sea like a mist of light.

HIPSTAMATIC LYDIA