Marcello Ruvidotti
A puro caso
Artphilein Editions, Lugano — 2022
“by pure chance I got your address”
Thus, in 1941, a long exchange of letters began between my grandparents. A long-distance dialogue that quickly became a love story destined to last their whole lives.
She was a girl from Lombardy who began writing as a war godmother volunteer; he was a young soldier sent to the front in Albania in 1941 as part of the Epirus campaign.
The discovery of their epistolary relationship took place when my grandmother died. Years later, through the study of the correspondence between each letter, I put together a mapping, an itinerary through the landscapes crossed by my grandfather.
Letters in hand, in 2017 I set off for the Balkans in search of those places. Some I found, others I came close to, others I could only imagine.
(Marcello Ruvidotti)
