His stories were published in the glorious “Corriere dei Piccoli”; he says he never stopped playing; and in his freshly printed silent book, All the strength of a flower, celebrates the gentle strength typical of child spirits, capable of generating beauty with the power of a seed that blooms even in arid lands … We asked Silvio Boselli to tell us about his imaginative world of man and author. Enjoy the reading!
Silvio, tell us about yourself … how you were as a child!
As a child I loved hiding under my grandmother’s table and observing the world outside, beyond the legs of the chairs: I felt like I was in a forest. A forest that enveloped and protected me. I always played a lot during my childhood and I can say that I never stopped. Playing is the most vital way to explore the world. The mystery of the world.
Your silent book has just come out: All the strength of a flower. Tell us about this book.
The story comes from a suggestion: the song “Al di là del muro” by Luca Barbarossa (1989). I found the refrain very evocative:
“Live, live
Here it is no longer used
Cry, laugh
Here you are no longer wrong
This fear of loving
You explain it to me
This fear of going
Beyond the wall … “
The narrative core took shape in me more than 20 years ago, with the black and white drawings for the essay “The Policeman and the Mask” (Giochi, esercizi e tecniche del Teatro dell’Oppresso, by Augusto Boal, edizioni La Meridiana). After some time, re-reading that book, I felt like revisiting it by updating the characters, chiseling the plot, giving it a new color graphic look through the transparencies of the watercolor.
The identity of the protagonist character of the book is intriguing: a bit elf, a bit explorer, a bit street artist, with a fairly indecipherable age… Who is he really?
A young man with no name, dressed in a bizarre way. Who he really is I don’t know. I suspect that he dresses as a bit crazy as Parsifal (one of the knights of the Round Table, with a pure heart, will be the one who will come closest to conquering the Grail, ed) to deceive his enemies.
One of the possible leads that open up by reading your register leads to street art. Was it your intention? What do you know about that world? What value do you think it holds today?
Some of my students are street artists. Street art brings with it not only the dimension of the challenge but also that of the transformation of urban space. The idea that you can change your view of the world.
A mark on the wall does not change reality but it can become a prophecy of change.
Art in general has this function.
The planet depicted in All the Strength of a Flower is divided by a high and insurmountable wall. Were you inspired by some physical barrier that our age knows, such as the one that marks the border between the USA and Mexico, or does yours remain a completely metaphorical reminder?
The walls are the fruit of fear. And the defense of the status quo. As in the story I tell. The wall can of course also be understood as a metaphor for the inner walls that we carry inside.
How to turn walls into bridges? First of all, a dream is needed. Dreaming of something new.
It is the dream that moves us. If a sign follows the dream, that’s it, we took the first step. A path of change begins.
Projects work in progress for this 2021
I’m working on a second episode. The idea, in perspective, would be to create a trilogy.
With the hope of being able to create “open” stories, where there is room for the interpretation of the reader. I like to imagine the Reader as a co-author of the story …
