Artist, Silvia Rosi: I often embody my ancestors, my parents, to create this dialogue between the past and the present.
I’m Silvia Rosi. I’m an artist working with photography and moving image.
I was born in Italy from Togolese parents and started off by looking at images from my family album, in which my parents were young adults in Italy; there were also images that my parents brought from Togo.
This image is titled Sposa togolese disintegrata, in English, Disintegrated Togolese Wife. It’s inspired by an existing photograph of my mom in her wedding dress. Sometimes I find myself judging my parents and thinking, why are you raising me in this country? But then recreating an image, placing myself in the work—it’s a way for me to understand their journey and their motivations.
While asking my mom of her experience of living in Italy, she said something on the line of, “I was once integrated, now I’m disintegrated.” And I found that incredibly interesting in describing the experience of the diaspora, where, as an individual, you go through different stages of your building of the self in the new country that you’re living in.
The sense of fragmentation is evident in the way the photograph is physically displayed, and it’s up to the viewer to put together the pieces while looking at the work.