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STONES of CARRARA 

 (...) Carrara, a small City in Tuscany that dates back to the Roman Age, is renowned for it’s white marble. As one drives along the highway, one might think the tops of the surrounding mountains are snow-covered, but they are in fact topped with marble. The purpose of my trip to Carrara wasn’t solely to find a link with Michelangelo’s work, which is mostly located in Florence and Rome, but to catch something in the air, something out of time that makes me feel concern for the reality of this specific place. Carrara is a town that has resisted the global market economy, has avoided being branded, keeping old stores in their orignial state as if nothing would ever change (although some anarchist organizations have been openly located in town since the end of 19th century). Generations of quarry workers have been slowly creating the story of this place since Michelangelo. White and blue-gray marble. This is what this city lives for and off. The contrast between this hard land, surrounded by ominous mountains, and the perfect milky skin of the rocks is what attracted me (...) I’ve been up into the mountains to Colonnata, to where the blocks of marble are extracted and loaded. I’ve heard the sounds of trucks and caterpillars at work through a foggy and silent day. I’ve seen the inky sky pourring down upon the quarries, creating dozens overtones of grey polished oxidized rocks under the light, as if the whole landscape had turned to marble (...)

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