La Festa Dell'Equatore — Lacavalla Rosa

Through evocative images, La Festa dell’Equatore (The Feast of the Equator) invites you to immerse in an extraordinary journey that challenges the geographical and emotional distances between two worlds—a journey that traverses not only continents but also the very threshold of transformation.

The Equator, that invisible line dividing our planet into two hemispheres, becomes a symbolic meeting point at the crossroads where destinies collide and merge—an experience that marks a turning point in one’s life as a new world unfolds. Connecting the thread that binds imagination and memory, at the heart of this exploration is the captivating phenomenon of moving stars as they migrate from one hemisphere to another. A celestial dance reflecting the migration of people, ideas, and traditions.

Using an Italo-Argentinian family and its fragmented history as a case study of a visual and emotional journey, the work aims to illuminate a broader theme, delving into the intricate interaction of cultures and landscapes, accompanied by the enduring power of dreams.

The project’s title itself, La Festa dell’Equatore, pays homage to a poignant rite of passage that took place aboard steamships transporting migrants to South America. It was a celebratory moment, a communal commemoration marking the approach of a new life. However, it often was followed by profound silence, accompanied by eyes filled with tears and a mixture of hopes and nostalgia.

La Festa dell’Equatore guides the viewer into a space where things are ambiguous, uncertain, and mutable, and where the boundaries between reality and dream blur, embracing the unknown. Where memories fade and intertwine, ideas and thoughts blend, giving rise to a new symphony between the sky and the ocean.

La Festa Dell’Equatore is an ongoing transmedia project.
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La Festa dell’Equatore is an exploration of geographical and emotional distances between two hemispheres. Combining different media, including photography, video, audio recordings, found footage, and archive, the project adopts a transmedia narrative format.

A selection of it is contained within a website, offering a contemporary and imaginative view on the journey of people and stars migration, while overlapping historical materials and references.

Using a narrative that distinguishes between reality and dream, the website offers an engaging experience to users, allowing them to explore these themes freely and intuitively.

Within each section, they will find a wide range of multimedia content, including documents, audio recordings, an interactive map, texts, and videos arranged in a non-linear manner to stimulate exploration and discovery.

A key element is represented by crossing the equator line, symbolizing the passage between different hemispheres, both physically and metaphorically.

Link soon available

Part of the work involves a photographic series and collected materials from one Italo-Argentinian family and its fragmented history serving as a case study for this visual and emotional journey.

By intertwining imagination and memory, history and dreams, the images center around the protagonist family. They blend contemporary perspectives with private and public archives, as well as film stills. Preferring a non-linear narrative approach, symbolic depictions of past events resonate, empowering viewers to interpret the narrative, thus imagining their own experience.

The Crossing Ceremony (2023-ongoing) is a single-channel video installation that binds found footage of the Equator line-crossing ceremony - featuring old and contemporary rituals - with a more evocative imagery capturing the essence of migration connected to the phenomenon of “moving stars”. These visuals metaphorically represent the journey across the Atlantic Ocean, marking a significant turning point in one’s life.

The videowork invites viewers to embark on a voyage alongside King Neptune, the revered guardian of the oceans. Within the narrative, Neptune prepares for a pivotal event—the crossing of the Equator Line—a celestial boundary of great significance for himself and all inhabitants of his realm.

Integrating found footage spanning from historical to contemporary documen tation, the video captures the ritualistic essence unfolding above steamships and boats.

Transitioning into the second part, the narrative delves into a more introspective perspective, metaphorically depicting the challenges of the journey and the profound symbolism inherent in traversing the invisible threshold, intertwined with the shifting patterns of celestial bodies in the night sky.

7’’02’, Color, Sound
Voice hover: English
Subtitles: Italian or Spanish
Music: Hernán Paulitti

Link soon available