Italian girl in London

Italian girl in London

Tag Archives: life

Magic art, where fantasy and reality collide

20 Saturday May 2017

Posted by italiangirlinlondon in Art and Design, Little Black Book

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art, Block Universe, life, performance, Robina Doxi, Shoreditch, SKC

This week I finally reconnect with the world of art and guess what, I am a lot happier for that. It all started in a very corporate way, attending a conference in Munich where I heard catastrophic predictions about the Trump administration and the Titanic act that Brexit will represent for the UK. Luckily the balmy weather, the sunshine and the good company I was with tempered these feelings of fear and negativity. On my way back in London, welcomed by November rain, I headed to the South Kensington club for the presentation of Block Universe, London’s international performance art festival running, which is about to start in a week. And I am genuinely excited about the programme and the performances that will see in few days.

Performance followed in the other part of town, in trendy and not so grungy anymore Shoreditch, at STRUCTURED MAGIC, an exhibition of visual and performing art where fantasy and reality collide. IMG_5498

If Block Universe makes references to the world of Physics and the notion of time, “the Structure of Magic” is a psychotherapeutic term, which involves offering new models of being in an imaginary context. This is a method intended to transform a person’s perception of the world and their place in it, on a fundamental level – literally expanding their reality, by demonstrating that there are always more choices than initially perceived. Hence making the invisible visible.

All humans experience the world differently and each of us creates a different model and therefore a different reality. In this exhibition, dominated by the great work of my friend and talented artist Robina Doxi, the artist invites the viewers into her inner world and experiences the magic of her fantasies and dreams. Her pieces take you on a journey that seems to tell you a story, sometimes a fairy-tale, sometimes a dream, sometimes a sci-fi narrative, condensed with abstraction and dystopian imagery.

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During the exhibition, I had a chat with Madame Echo, a performer who gifted me of a little bottle of champagne, with a wish of happiness protection. The magic is going to happen after the election in the UK, on the 8th of June. I would never say no to happiness and champagne. In fact, they often go hand in hand. Merci Madame E. IMG_5518

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

www.blockuniverse.co.uk

http://www.southkensingtonclub.com

www.doxi.org

 

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Stranded at home

23 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by italiangirlinlondon in About, Laboutins, Lifestyle, Little Black Book, Londra, mostra, scarpe

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BoJack, Hammersmith, life, London City Airport, William Morris Society

Plans and life don’t always go hand in hand.

On Friday late afternoon I was heading to London City Airport on the DLR. I left the office early as planned, was on perfect time, ETA 5 pm for a flight taking off at 6, which is plenty of time for City airport, where you feel you are a member of JetNet and everyone looks like they are running an extremely important business. I had a sleek winter wedding outfit in the bag, alongside a shirt for my husband, which he had left behind.

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My planned outfit. Photo credit: dress Hobbs, shoes Christian Louboutin, bag Hugo Boss, fur Canavesi family vintage.

 

And then come the bad surprise, delivered by the DLR’ tannoy: the airport is shut, as the DLR station that leads to it. However Twitter was saying that the airport was open, so I trusted the social media, absolutely adamant of not letting any incident to ruin my plans. I got off at the last suitable station and had prearranged an Uber to make up for the time I was going to lose. Jumped in the car – which I offered to two strangers in my same situation – and after 250 metres we were stuck in traffic. The road leading to the airport was closed as well. Got off, got the notification of the most expensive 250 metres ever done (£7) and walked, alongside many others, towards the airport. There I waited patiently and shared my pain with a couple of “stranded” fellows. Luckily I got a spot on a step and felt lucky for that. The scene in front of me was quite surreal. Usually, the scene of people stranded at airports are of a colourful mix of individuals, dressed in clothes suitable for the place where they are heading, hence often wearing flip flops and shorts, while here everyone was suited and booted, with compact wheelie bags, dark coats, two phones and a laptop. It felt as if Canary Wharf has been evacuated and everyone carried their belongings in their bag.

 

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Waiting to be told what to do

 

No news from the airport on what was happening, which turned out to be a chemical scare or the airline, which couldn’t tell me if my flight was cancelled or not and what my options were. We just kept on seeing fire-fighters and police cars arriving and not leaving. The longer the wait, the darker and colder it was getting, and thinner my hopes to get on a fast flight to Edinburgh, joining the husband – who headed there the day before – and friends. So I did what many people did: read my book, pulled out a warm scarf and socialised with a couple of other people in my same shoes and weighted my options.

At 7.30 I turned my heels and decided to head home, having scheduled a call with BA and asked my family to help to find another flight. Sadly, despite all the efforts, no empty seats were heading to Scotland that would have allowed me to make it on time for a wedding that I was expecting to be pretty special. Sorry, I missed your special day Theo and Rebecca! So what do you do with 48 hours ahead with nothing planned, where a good portion of your friends and your husband are not around? You do what you would not normally do, which turned up to be quite blissful and fulfilling. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Also, our designated cat si(s)tter turned out to be ill, which would have meant that our new member of the family would have been starving.

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BoJack sleeps blissfullySo, what did I do?

So, what did I do? While I was walking along the stretched around Hammersmith Bridge, I visited the William Morris Society, mini museum carved out of William Morris’s house, which is a delight for those, like me, passionate about Pre Raffaellites and stylish prints.

 

 

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Original print by William Morris at the William Morris Society

 

I discovered that a new little Italian deli is about to open this weekend, went to the market to get fresh fruit and vegetables, watched a silly French movie, cooked a lot for the week, so do not have to face for a couple of days the dilemma “what can I cook in 5 minutes” which I often face at 8.30 pm, tired and starved, and started a new brilliant book called ‘Sixty Million Frenchmen can’t be wrong”, which is turning out to be very similar to ‘Watching the English’. I thought I better get prepared, in the light of the latest EU summit. Alongside plenty of warning of a rough road ahead, the French language, and everything around it, is very much in vogue.

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(Un)expected results

05 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by italiangirlinlondon in Lifestyle

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babies, career, life, relationship, Stylist Magazine

Following my exciting photo-shoot at Stylist Magazine, here is the result of the survey

http://www.stylist.co.uk/people/the-stylist-census#image-rotator-1 and one of the several pictures featuring their lovely readers. You can spot me if you know who I am.

Census Hero Final

Following the shoot, they approached me two days before going to press and asked if I wanted to talk more about one of  the trends that emerged from my interview and many others.

I agreed gracefully to talk about this topic, so I sent them my thoughts at 11.30 at night. Journalists are ALWAYS hitting a deadline. Pity they didn’t publish it, but as I own the copyright on these thoughts, here they are. The subject? Babies.

Baby Blues? Not me. I turned 30 a year ago and the desire of becoming a mother hasn’t reached me yet. Not in the slightest possible way. This is despite the fact that biology suggests that is the most natural thing to do at my age – both socially and at work I find myself  surrounded by young women who are having their first or second child.

My priorities are my career and the desire to become a well rounded, fulfilled adult. I am well on the way – but I haven’t got there yet. After my Masters eight years ago I swapped Milan for London to improve my English, but never left. Now I have a wonderful job and fantastic boyfriend to share a mortgage with…but I feel still like I left university only few months ago!

There is just too much I enjoy about life in London to sacrifice for the sake of a child: I love my 8 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, lying in bed and reading the paper on Sunday morning until midday, being able to go out every night – even if it is just to a have a chat and a drink with a friend – fitting a very sociable life, going to exhibitions, making my own jewellery, and following my multiple hobbies without thinking about it twice. I enjoy being flexible, being in a position to move or travel long distance for work, without planning complicated domestic arrangements. 

Does it sound familiar for anyone else?

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