It’s a Pleasure to Speak with You, Pollicina
Pollicina is a light and sound installation that emerges from a reflection on the everyday life of Via delle Segherie, a street in Prato crossed daily by different languages, cultures, and trajectories.
The work takes shape from an old streetlamp, decommissioned due to obsolescence, which was recovered and transformed into a poetic object. Painted in vivid fuchsia, it appears as a kind of enchanted lamp capable of speaking. The name Pollicina derives from Pollice, the name of the lamp’s original manufacturer, still engraved on its structure.
As people walk by, the lamp is activated and speaks short, mysterious, and divinatory sentences in different languages. These are gentle wishes, auspicious messages, and evocative fragments reminiscent of fortune cookies or the messages hidden inside Baci Perugina chocolates. Speaking in different languages, Pollicina reflects the multilingual everyday life of Via delle Segherie, transforming a discarded urban object into a small device for encounter, imagination, and hospitality. A simple gesture creates a moment of suspension within the urban routine: an unexpected encounter, a luminous pause inviting reflection on the next step.
The work emerged from a collective project promoted by the many people who co-form Dryphoto Arte Contemporanea and was commissioned for MLZ – Via delle Segherie, curated by Alba Braza. Since 2020, Pollicina has been permanently installed in Giardino Melampo, Prato, a shared public space conceived by Andrea Abati.
