@ale_crotucanto

22 years old

Milano, Italy

How has your everyday-life changed? What do you do to fulfill your day?

I live in Milan and since it was declared the state of lockdown I've never come out of my home, if not to just go for some grocery shopping. Once. I had to learn so many things that were vital to survive this atypical situation, but the most difficult change concerns my graduation thesis project, that I'm currently developing within a group of 12 people and 2 professors. I keep my days busy with school homeworks, extra-curricular projects, then I read, I draw and I workout.

Your work is built on creativity. While we’re all in quarantine, what is your solution to keep on being creative? Where do you find your inspiration in this moment?

To answer this question, I'd like to borrow the words of teacher and designer Victor Papanek: "Design has become the most powerful tool with which men model their instruments and environment (and, in extension, society and themselves, too)." This surreal situation required me (and not just me) to adapt, model ourselves, and that is already an act of creativity. From my point of view, to stay creative means just that: to open your mind to the difficulties and the limitations os isolation and read everything that happens to me as if it was a sci-fi comic. I started draw some cartoons, mostly ironic, trying to describe our condition, as if I'm landed on another planet (I post them almost everyday on my Instagram profile). Being able to look the world surrounding me in this detached, yet goofy way made me smile, but it also gave me the opportunity to reflect and do some serious thinking that inspired my work, too. I decided to share this project with all the people I could virtually reach, turning it into a sort of giant communication network that could help us getting together. I had a huge benefit and it confirmed the idea of Papanek: creativity is a powerful tool, and each one of us is gifted with a piece of it. Isolation doesn't kill inspiration, it's our eyes on things that can make the difference.

What is your biggest fear right now?

I'm really scared of the day when the lockdown will be over. I'm scared about that day because it will be extremely delicate: as many people, I strongly desire to go back to open air and to my routine, but I fear that after all those sacrifices our crave for the "normal life" would let us make a terrible mistake.

Then, I have another strong fear concerning my future. In a few months I will end my studies; after that, I was supposed to enter a new chapter of my life full of choices and possibilities. A stage, a Master, or an actual work. I have to keep the faith, but I fear that my opportunities will be just a few of what they could have been. For now, I'm focusing to spend my last months as a student in the best way possible: I try to be optimist, but sometimes this thoughts are stronger than my faith.

What will you do once all of this is over?

I'm hearing many and many people discussing about whether this experience will change us or not, if we're going to go back to our "normality" or if this crisis will mark us. Personally, I'm lucky because I didn't loose anyone dear - and I also managed to build myself a new routine. Though, I got the chance to reflect about my pre-virus life style and I realized that I took many things for granted. While in quarantine, I watched for the first time Il sorpasso, and old black&white movie by Dino Risi: even if it was shot in 1962, I felt like I was running in that Lancia Aurelia, right now, in 2020. While I was watching it, I kept asking me this question: “Which character am I? Am I Roberto, living by the rules, or Bruno, who lives above the them?” - and I was sad in facing the fact that for the most of my life, I've been a Roberto. Without spoiling it, I suggest this movie to everyone and asking themselves the same question: it helped me understand that when this crisis will be over, I want to try to be a more like Bruno. I made myself this promise: I guess I'll see what will happen, then.