In 2016, Elisa Talentino, an internationally renowned illustrator who lives and works in Turin, spent a month between the Hautes-Alpes department and the province of Cuneo thanks to the Borderscapes artist residency, visiting villages and valleys on the border between Italy and France and immersing herself in Occitan culture. The ancient dances of those places became the subject of his research, which led in 2017 to the creation of the animation Dandelion.
The artist paints more than a thousand watercolour plates that are then assembled to bring to life two dancers who, as in a courtship ritual, approach, move apart and brush against each other to the notes of a two-step bourrée, specially written by cellist Julia Kent and inspired by traditional Occitan music. The only element appearing between the two dancing bodies is a simple and common flower: the dandelion or dandelion (in English Dandelion deriving from the French Dent-de-lion); popular tradition has it that scattering the seeds of this plant, contained in a dandelion, in the air can make a wish for love come true.
An evocative and poetic animation, which strikes La Fabbrica dei Suoni and Espaci Occitan, who undertake the installation of the exhibition “Tempo di bourrée”. Some drawings and sketches made by Elisa Talentino for the animation have been collected in this delightful volume, edited by Melania Gazzotti and embellished with a numbered print signed by the artist.
The animation Dandelion has been selected in animation festivals worldwide, winning the Gold Medal of “3×3 Magazine”. The soundtrack was recognised as Best original soundtrack at the Lago Film Fest and Wag Film Festival.
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Edited by Melania Gazzotti
Texts by Melania Gazzotti and Rosella Pellerino
Book design Bunker
13,5 × 19 cm
80 pages
Swiss-style hardback
Italian/Occitan
Contains a risograph print
numbered and signed by the artist
Isbn 978-88-98030-15-6
First published July 2018
