Options

Options reflects on the consequences of the annexation of South Tyrol to Italy at the end of WWI. When the area sandwiched between the present-day Austrian and Trentino boundaries officially became an Italian province in 1918, ending centuries of Austro-Hungarian domination, a choice was given to the local communities: they could either stay, naturalise as Italians and side with the Fascists, or they could emigrate to the Third Reich and leave behind their culture and possessions.

Options is a box containing a set of playing cards that bear each an image, inspired by traditional heraldry, and a text, emerging from Giacconi’s interviews with various South Tyrolean personalities. The book emerges from a research conducted by Riccardo Giacconi (1985), an artist and essayist investigating language and narration as sociopolitical phenomena. Illustrations are by Giulia Marzin.