Saturday, February 18, 2012

coriandoli

























Coriandoli are little, tiny, coloured, round pieces of paper that people throw at each other during this wonderful season called Carnevale. Coriandoli goes in pair with Stelle Filanti, a tube of striped paper that will unravel by blowing air in the whole. So at the end of the celebration, which consists of a parade in costume throughout the village all the way to its final destination, the square, you are left with a town paved with coloured dots and stripes.
The book featured here celebrates the most famous Carnevale there is, besides the Rio one in Brazil, Il Carnevale di Venezia, which happens in the month of February every year.
Coriandoli by Carlo Fabre, 1985, depicts the origin of this celebration ( which goes back to Medieval time) through its photographs:
it is during this Marquerade that the poor becomes rich, the peasant becomes of noble origins.
It is now that the "you" becomes "other", anybody or anything you want, and for one day have the illusion to live a different life and for a moment laugh out loud at that whimsical, cruel, blind Godess that Fate is.