Robida #8: Isola Otok Island
The nostalgia of Ulysses, the wait of Penelope, the refuge of Robinson Crusoe, the home of Elsa Morante’s Arturo, the treasure of Edmond Dantès, the exile of Prospero, the prison of Caliban, the utopia of Thomas More, the dystopia of Golding’s Lord of the Flies: islands are places for stories.
Islands are observation points, which do not just tell their own, long-kept secrets, but allow us to pose questions that extend beyond their shores: what can we see, from the island, that we could not see outside it? What change of perspective does the island offer us? Robida has always been interested in looking at places from this slanted angle, interrogating places not just for what they are, but what they can say; not just what and why a margin is, but rather how it can speak.
Furthermore, our understanding of islands cannot but be deeply connected with the notion of movement, or the lack of it. It is through a journey that we arrive at the island, while our being on one is defined by its physical limits that impose stillness and encourage observation. Islands evoke journeys.
We have therefore imagined and organized ‘Robida 8’ as a journey, that can explore aspects of island life along a narrative thread, as if developing the structure of an epic voyage: from the Embarkation – where introductory perspectives on islands are offered –, then into the Departure – which considers the islands from afar, as conceptual entities –, through the Tempest – representative of the turmoils and movement that island stand for –, passing from the Strandedness – where the island coincides with stillness –, to finally approach the Homecoming, and the island as repository of collective as well as personal memory. Our aim is for this journey to enrich our understanding of islands, as fertile ground for exploring what it means to inhabit a place.
