Didi's version
Olivia Gozzano is a photographer in Milan; a city in which she has lived and loved through many conflicts and that she has abandoned and been reunited with many times.
Olivia's eyes are the lenses through which she describes and somewhat justifies her love for this city. Milan is like a woman; at times elegant, curvy and mischevious and at other times popular, self-assured and intriguing.
The Milan that no longer exists is re-lived through Didi Martinaz; a singing symbol of the "Ligera", the underworld of Milan born out of the War.
Her character evokes a Milan of the past in which she was the Queen of the nightclubs, amongst the legendary "Derby Club" and "Milanoir, Milanuit" that belonged to Piero Colaprico.
In her songs we can find stereotypes of the time: pavement artists in conflicts with local policemen (Milanese "ghisa"), commmunal houses teared down by impatient excavators and sad prostitutes from the "Ligera".
As part of the history of Milan, Didi Martinaz gives her face to those characters who are born from her creative imagination, the same characters that Olivia Gozzano caputres with her focal lenses in an attempt to celebrate the courage of being female.
Text by Davide Atomo Tinelli
