Carrara: island and metaphor

This work begins and develops through the origins of the city and of marble, continuing to describe the life of the quarryman during the early 1900s with a continuous comparison with modern working methods. Starting from the Amphitheater of Luni, one of the few tangible signs on the territory left of the old Roman civilization, in addition to the "Fossacava" quarry in Colonnata, which first discovered the white marbles which, according to legend, were noticed from a long distance on the boats , thanks to their glow. Archive images and videos, such as the photographs from the Bessi Photographic Archive, the shots taken by the Istituto Luce, the documentary by Francesco Tarabella "I Cavatori" (1958) and also various paintings that depict the life and work in the quarry of John Singer Sargent and Maria Teresa Mazzei Fabbricotti at the beginning of the 1900s, subsequently combined with personal and therefore present-day footage of the territory through a montage rich in overlaps to compose new images that summarize life and fatigue of the quarryman, the risks of the trade and the radical change of a place over time.
The images move in a frenetic montage, punctuated by the incessant background coming from recordings, made in the quarry, of sounds that arise from the excavation machines, from the trucks and from the tools used to cut the marble. Sounds and noises that contrast with the archive photos, photographed in turn, several times, with long exposures so as to render the movement and the action performed in them. The black and white of the images gives a full contrast between the marble and the man, focusing the attention on the movement of the worker and his fatigue. The final effort of man is described by the transport of the monolith destined for the Mussolini forum, the largest block of marble ever transported via lizzatura, an ancient technique of transport from the mountain to the floor of the block of marble using wooden beams that were placed under it and moved continuously to make it advance along the descent of the so-called "via di lizza". Subsequently led to the port of Marina di Carrara with the use of a cart pulled by oxen, crossing the so-called Via Carriona, which takes its name from the frequent passage of carts and alongside which the river of the same name flows.
Starting from the the mountain and descending into the city center, the presence of man will begin to fade to make room for the buildings that were built only thanks to their efforts, in which the white stone stands out, as in the whole city. Buildings such as the Duomo, the Verdi Theater or "Politeama", the Animosi Theater, the fascist post office building and the Casa del Balilla.
All these places, taken from period films and images, are compared in a series of overlaps with today's shots of the same buildings, always relating through details that emphasize the difference, the relationship between present and past. Furthermore, shots were taken of the Carrione river, the protagonist of numerous floods in the city center, precisely in the stretch of road present in the videos and filming. The flow of water indicates the progress of time and the flow of events and will act as a link for the passage between the frames of the buildings and therefore of different eras.