Cryptic Venus

The main characters and subjects of this project are women from Lucca, feminine figures that shaped their lives based on their will. Doing so, they deprived themselves of their own identity in order to become symbolic icons, the reflection of the society they lived in. What I want to represent in my pictures is their stories and plumb the depth of their legacy that still affects our cultural heritage. For this reason, through a sharp selection of objects, I recall the cultural context they lived in and, at the same time, emphasize their contribution to the creation of Lucca’s social and cultural context and local community identity. Although some of these characters are based on real people who really did exist, the mystery and the unknown around them let the public link to an imaginary world, made up of ancestral fears and archetypes. Starting from the idea of community, intended as the set of stories, symbols, rituals that identify it, this project aims to dig to the stereotypes and their emblematic function, seeking especially the deepest fears mankind have to face during their lives and the necessity of belonging to the Community. This is an introspective project focused on mankind’s worries such as solitude, suffering, incomprehension, detachment. These feelings ground the human being, unarmed and defenseless facing loss and confusion.