Trampolieri - The Fabulous Sky-walkers of Bologna (1)

"Trampolieri" are the people who walk on stilts. Bologna (Italy) where I live, has a group of dedicated stilt-walkers who use wonderful creativity and imagination to choose new styles, costumes and colours for each of their public appearances.

This photo-essay is a homage to this group of people. It presents some of their pictures that I have clicked over the past 8 years. This first part of the post focusses on the period 2005-2011.

Let me start with some general information about stilt-walking. The art of stilt-walking goes back a long time. There is a mention of stilt-walking in ancient Greek texts, more than two thousand years old. When I was a child, once I had seen a tribal group do a dance on stilts in India. People living in marshy areas build their houses on stilts and sometimes use stilts to cross marshy-watery places. So stilt walking is common to many countries and cultures.

There are different kinds of stilts. You can read more about them on Wikipedia.

In the image below you can see the stilts used by the Bologna group of stilt-walkers - these are made of sturdy wood. A wooden flat piece is fixed to the sole of the shoes, which is then fixed to a wooden piece on the top of the stilt. It requires a good sense of balance and lot of practice to do stilt-walking safely.

2005

I saw the the Trampolieri of Bologna for the first time at the preparation of the summer festival parade (Par Tot parade) in Villa Angeletti park in 2005. I was not too impressed by them. They had a pale hooded dress with black designs on their faces and bodies.

Clicking their pictures while they were moving on stilts was difficult as they were moving quickly and probaly I was standing too close to them. Here are two pictures from that first encounter in 2005.

2006

In 2006 I saw them at the summer rave party. Rave parties are about losing inhibitions, dancing, drinking, and making a lot of noise. It also means getting stoned by smoking weed or taking stronger drugs. In that occasion, the costume of the Trampolieri was simple and in line with the spirit of the rave party. Once again, I was not too impressed with them, though they seemed to be having a good time and enjoying themselves.

2007

The summer festival preparations of the Par Tot parade at Villa Angeletti park in 2007 was the first time that I looked at the Trampolieri with more attention. They had a colourful look. Some people had painted their bodies in gold, some with white and red and some others with red and blue or red and yellow. The costumes had red, purple and black with blue-yellow hats. Thus, in 2007 I clicked a lot of their pictures and started recognising them as a group.

2008

In 2008, I had a glimpse of the Trampolieri at the Bologna GLBTIQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transexual, Intersexual, Queer) pride parade. It was very crowded and noisy, and I could only see them a from a distance. So not many pictures came from this encounter. My favourites in this occasion was a young couple in blue.

2011

I didn't find any good images of Trampolieri in my image archives from 2009 and 2010, and I only found them again in 2011. At the Par Tot parade in the summer festival at the Piazza Maggiore of Bologna, the Trampolieri were present in two main groups. The first group was part of people dressed as giant insects, like the two guys dressed as black spiders shown in the images below.

The second and more numerous group was that of devils and angry spirits, like the followers of Shiva, in different colours and shapes. They were all closed in a prison of a white chain linked to a wooden pole held by the lead couple. Though they were trying to be scary, I think that they looked nice - in my opinion, it was their best look so far. The quality of their body make-up and costumes had improved.

Conclusion

I hope that you have liked this brief introduction to the Trampolieri stilt walkers of Bologna.

To close this post, the last image is from the 2007 Par Tot summer festival parade, of a girl dressed as the sun.

You can check the Facebook page of the Trampolieri of Bologna for more pictures and to know about their other initiatives. You can also read the second part of this post that presents their costumes from 2012 and 2013.
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Vicenza - The City of Andrea Palladio

Vicenza is a small and beautiful city. Its name is linked to Andrea Palladio, one of the most influential medieval architects whose works and ideas continue to inspire architects even today. This post is about a walking tour of Vicenza and an introduction to some of the works of Andrea Palladio.

The image above is from the Marine monument near the railway station of Vicenza. Some one had put a christmas cap on the head of Antonio Pigafetta's statue, one of the mariners on the Portuguese ship that went around the world in 1521-22 AD.

Vicenza is on the railway line connecting Venice to Verona and Milan. Usually people visit Venice and then go to Verona for its connection to the Romeo-Juliet story. However, if you have a little time, I recommend that you visit Vicenza and Padova (Padua) on the way - both cities are worth a visit.

Andrea Palladio

Andrea Palladio was born as Andrea di Pietro in Padua in 1508 and his father had a flour mill. When he was 13 years old he came to Vicenza to work as a stone cutter and then as a mason. From this lowly job he rose up to become one of the most admired architects of his time and wrote 4 important books to explain his principles and ideas about architecture.

The statue of Andrea Palladio shown below is from the main city square called Piazza della Signoria (Square of the Lords) in Vicenza.

After his death, Palladio's name slowly became famous in the English speaking world where his follower architects called themselves as Palladians. A few years ago, on the occasion of a Palladian exhibition in UK, Jonathan Glancy had written an article about Palladio in The Guardian - The stonecutter who shook the world. Palladio brought back the Roman style of architecture (based on the classical Greek), focusing on symmetery, essential clean lines and grace, avoiding heavy embellishments.

Villa Rotunda, one of Palladio's creations just outside Vicenza (shown in the image below) is one of his more famous buildings. It has inspired a number of important buildings around the world including the White House in USA.

The main city square of Vicenza, Piazza dei Signori, is rectangular with a green domed Basilica (Court house) built by Palladio on one side (shown in the image below). In this building you can see the style of windows that became famous as Palladian windows, with a central arched opening in the middle, and narrower, flat roofed openings on the two sides.

At one end of the square, two towers carry the symbols of the Venetian republic, of which Vicenza was an important part in the medieval period.

On the other end of the square, opposite the Basilica is another of Palladio's creations - the lodge of Capitanio, that now hosts the municiple assembly.

A short distance away from the Basilica, is the Academic Theatre (Teatro Academico), another of Palladio's creations.

City has many other buildings by Palladio including a Palladio museum. Some other buildings, such as the Valmarana lodge (in the image below) in the beautiful Salvi gardens, carry unmistakable signs of Palladio's influence.

To honour Palladio, the central street of the old part of Vicenza is called Corso Palladio. Flanked by beautiful shops, medieval buildings and sculptures, it is the street where Vicentini (people of Vicenza) come out for their walk on the weekends.

Other places to Visit in Vicenza

The pink coloured medieval cathedral of Vicenza (il Duomo) is worth a visit. Its dome was also designed by Palladio.

The cathedral has a number of beautiful paintings such as the one shown below (by Bartolomeo Montagna from early sixteenth century).

Another important church of Vicenza, just off Corso Palladio, is Santa Corona (Holy crown). Palladio is buried here and he had also designed parts of this church.

Santa Corona church is full of wonderful paintings like the one shown below (by Gianbattista Pittoni).

Another nice place to visit in Vicenza is the wonderful Querini gardens with a canal, water birds and medieval statues.

San Michele bridge, also called the old bridge, from sixteenth century is closed to the traffic and is a romantic looking place.

Around San Michele bridge and just behind the Basilica is the oldest part of the city.

San Lorenzo church from 13th century is one of the older churches of Vicenza.

Close to the city, behind the railway station is a small hill called Monte Berico that has the Monte Berico church, built at a place where a peasant had seen the Madonna in 15th century. Going up the hill along a passage covered with archways, is a wonderful way to look at the snow-covered Alps mountains surrounding Vicenza and for the beautiful panoramas of the city, as shown in the images below.

In the panoramic view of Vicenza seen in the image below, you can easily see the green dome shaped roof of Palladio's Basilica.

Parts of Vicenza shown in these pictures are all situated in a relatively small area and are easy to visit on a walking tour, starting from the railway station.

The last image of this walking tour has a wonderful sculpture by a Vicentini artist called Nereo Quagliato and in it, you can also see the dome of the Cathedral,designed by Andrea Palladio.

When you visit Vicenza, works of Palladio accompany you every where. If you have time you can even join tours that take you to the different villas designed by Palladio in the surrounding small towns and countrysides. I have been told that it is a wonderful tour with wonderful views of vineyards.

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Artists working together

Nicola Zamboni and Sara Bolzani are two Italian sculptors. I like their works very much. In May 2013, I had the opportunity to visit them and to learn about them and their art. This is the last part of that interview.

Sunil: Sara, tell me about your artistic journey, how did you decide to be a sculptor?

Sara: At high school level I went to the art school in Monza. There I had a good teacher who did clay modelling and sculpture, so I got into it. He literally forced me to go to the Brera art academy in Milan. For the first 2 years I was with Prof. Giancarlo Marchese, but I was not feeling creatively happy with him. For the first year he made me do only sketching, without ever touching the clay and I did not like it. At that time I already had a studio and I was doing sculptures. Then in 1997, in the third year I went to some lessons with Nicola, and from the first lesson, I wanted to work with him. Luckily, it worked out and I could shift my classes. He told me to work with bronze, and once I did that, I fell in love with it. Two of my important works in that period were in Bronze, and I did my thesis on Nicola.

At that time I was also working as a waitress because I needed money to buy materials for my art. Nicola told me to give up that work and he gave me some work like making holes in the leaves, making small sculptures of fishes, etc. and he paid me. Some time after finishing the academy I started living with him.

Nicola: The personal thing between us, it happened when she was out of the academy and was no longer my student. I think that it is important to clarify it since I don't think that teacher can have relationships with their students, it would not be correct professional behaviour.

Sara: So now each of us has our own individual work but we collaborate when we make sculptures for public spaces. "The Humanity" project started in 2003. It started as a project for a school but we could not manage it, but then we continued with it for many years up to 2008-09. Since then, because of the crisis it has got a little slowed down.

Since 2001 after our first journey in India, I am also working on the theme of women.

Sunil: How do you influence each other? Do you influence each other?

Nicola: Surely we influence each other. To be in love is necessary for creating art, it becomes the oxygen that you breathe. There are things we share, like our love for travelling, our love for food, our way of living. It all influences the way we work and the kind of things we make. However, we don't share similar taste in music, I love classical music while she loves Bruce Springsteen and Vasco Rossi.

Sara: Perhaps that is a generational thing.

Nicola: It is not generational, I was like this when I was twenty. My son, he is forty, he also loves classical music.

Sara: But the world has changed, your twenty years were very different from my twenty years. Coming to the questioning of reciprocal influence, in the initial phase of our work, we do sit together and ask each other's opinion.

Nicola: We are very honest in giving opinion to each other.

Sara: Suppose he makes a horse, I can tell him that in my opinion, the neck is too long or he says that the arm of the my sculpture is too thin in this part.. so we criticise each other's work. We recognise that there are some things that he is good at and I am not so good, there are other things that I can make better. So in our joint works, we keep account of these things.

Nicola: In some human figures in bronze, she is really good, even if I try I can't match her.

Sunil: Apart from India, was there any other journey that has influenced your work?

Sara: Even our journey to Cambodia was significant, in terms of female figures. The influence of Africa has been much less. But some journeys like from this last journey in India, there are things that will remain in my heart for ever. Kumar, our guide, took us to the village of his wife. There the headman, an elderly person with white beard, he washed our feet as a sign of welcome. I was so embarrassed and at the same time, it touched me very deeply. It was an emotional experience very different from the experiences of other journeys. For example, once we were in Mexico and went to a catholic church, where the floor was covered with pine needles, and every where they had statues of saints. Another strange thing was that people were drinking coke and making loud hiccups, so it was a church prayer with some strange rituals. I can remember that experience with pleasure but it did not touch me emotionally like this journey to India touched me. They have influenced our work most.

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Nicola has made two sculptures of Sara. In one, she is lying down nude, her arms up holding a big fish. In another sculpture, Sara is surrounded by stalks of tall weed or thin bamboo like plants, holding her a prisoner, and she is followed by a figure in a veil.

Sara has also made a sculpture of Nicola. In this, a weaver (Sara) is making a quilt and in the quilt, there is Nicola's face made with metal wires.

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Read more about Nicola Zamboni & Sara Bolzani

An Introduction to Nicola Zamboni and Sara Bolzani

Meet the artist: Sara Bolzani

Meet the artist: Nicola Zamboni

Becoming a woman

The 2011 film by the dutch director Susan Koenen, "I am a girl" (original title: Ik ben een meisje) is about a 13 year old girl, Joppe, her growing up and her crush on a boy. Joppe was born a boy and the film touches on her journey to become a woman.

Story

Joppe has braces, long hair and a beautiful smile. Like her friends, she also dreams of love. She has a crush on Brian, but he does not answer her gestures for going out with her. Then one day Joppe hears from her friends that Brian is going out with another girl and she is sad. "I won't let it keep me down, life will go on", she tells her friends.

At the background of this simple tale of a teenage crush and growing up pains, is the story of Joppe's transformation from a boy to a girl, who wants to become a woman.

Comments

It is a simple film told in a simple way. At one level Joppe's journey of transformation from a boy to a girl seems almost painless. As a very young child she decided that she preferred to be a girl. Initially her family did not agree, but then they accepted her decision and in 5th standard (final year of primary school) she started this journey of transformation.

In the school it seems that Joppe has no problems from her classmates or from other young people. She spends her time with her friends. And when she goes to the middle school, she explains to her classmates about herself, so that everyone knows about what she is going through.

Joppe starts receiving injectable medicines that can stop her body from producing the male hormone, so that her body will not have the typical changes that occur in the boys during puberty - such as deepening of voice, growth of facial and body hair and growth of genitals.

Joppe knows what will be the path of her transformation. When Joppe will be sixteen years old, she can start receiving female hormones so that her body can start having the changes that girls get at puberty - such as more fat on the thighs and buttocks, and development of breasts. Later she will go through surgery so that her genitals will take the female form.

Joppe's journey of transformation is not completely painless though as her experience with Brian shows. Young people in her community may not be cruel or discriminatory to her, but at the same time, she is seen as different and at the beginning of any new relationship with a boy or a man, she will need to face the dilemma of "Can I tell him that I was born a boy?" and then let the boy/man decide if he wishes to continue that relationship.

She is aware that though she can wear a bikini and go to the swimming pool with her friends, she is also a little anxious if others can make out the difference. In the bathroom of the swimming pool, she sees other girls with their growing breasts and the feminine curves, and worries about her own flat chest and curveless body.

Most of all, Joppe is aware that "becoming a woman" is not a journey with an end point, but rather, it is a life long journey where she has to keep on becoming and transforming. And on this journey, she will have to face many other challenges.

About one day making a family with a man, Joppe says, "If he would wish for a family with children, perhaps he can have a child with a surrogate mother. It will be only his biological child, but I won't mind it so much."

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You can watch "I am a girl" with English subtitles on Aeon Film website - it is free of charge.

Credits
Ik ben een meisje
Director: Susan Koenen
Producer: Albert Klein Haneveld
Editor: Denise Janzée, Susan Koenen
Cinematographer: Reinout Steenhuizen
Sound: Bouwe Mulder

Running Time: 15 minutes
Language: Dutch with English subtitles
Website: www.ikbeneenmeisje.nl

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