It is entitled “Mongolia Felix”, the latest photographic and literary work by RUFA lecturer Michele Palazzi in the dual role of coordinator of the School of Photography and Audiovisual. Inserted in the series “Quaderni” for Origini edizioni, the volume expresses, on the basis of the concept of travel, the journey through the daily life of some families in the Gobi region, Mongolia, where sheep farming, which has been the main source of livelihood for centuries, has been in sharp decline for several decades.
As a counter-altar, life in the capital Ulaan Baatar is also recounted, much closer to that of countries linked to consumerist societies and economies. On the one hand, there are those who have chosen to continue the tradition of the steppe, despite all the difficulties; on the other hand, there are those who have preferred to try their luck in the metropolis, coming up against the reality of a degraded area invaded by unreachable Western cultural models.
But “Mongolia Felix” is also a journey of the soul of those who have found, in this distant and little-known country, the archetypes of their childhood, their family history, their origins, as Giovanni Lindo Ferretti testifies in the final text of the book.
The words, as in the logic of things when talking about a photographer, alternate with the images, producing a whole that involves and fascinates, almost allowing one to identify not only with the places but also with the situations.
For Michele Palazzi, represented by the Contrasto Agency and winner of the “Word Press Photo” in 2015, this is a non-trivial exploration of himself and above all of the artistic expressionism he represents.
