CandaCe HiTT

Torie Sanford

inTrodUCTion

Candace Hitt and Torie Sanford-finch are graduate students at The University of Memphis. Ms. Hitt is working on her Master’s of fine arts in

Photography, while Ms. Sanford-finch is in the Master’s of fine arts program in english, though her current work integrates both visual and

written language. in their current project at The florence University of the arts, these two artists are collaborating on an interpretive project

based around italo Calvino’s “invisible Cities,” a plausible account of the tales of travels by Marco Polo as told to Kublai Khan. Ms. Hitt and Ms.

Sanford-finch have invested their interpretation of Calvino’s work with the insights of a 21st Century traveler, combining the solitary, interior

experience of a stranger in a strange land with the wide-eyed curiosity and exploration of culture and place that has amazed travelers throughout

history. Their exploration fuses the boundaries of language, space and physical presence, seeking that “souvenir” that conveys both impression

and explanation.

The novel follows a fictionalized Marco Polo as he attempts todescribe his travel adventures to the ruler Kublai Khan. as Khantries desperately to discern the certitude of Polo's tales, iteventually becomes apparent that one can find traces of home inany place, and, in the same vein, one can look at their home withthe awe of a visitor. Though published in the mid-seventies thevalidity of the work has become even greater when considerationis given to the technological advancements and globalization ofour world. But things are never quite as they seem: they are neveras great or terrible nor are they ever quite actually as we recallthem--as was the case quite often with the tales of Marco Polo inCalvino's work. Contrary to the days when Polo traveled thereare reminders residual images and messages that prove ordisprove our own thoughts.

So Torie and i searched for reminders of home and documentedthe effects of travel on the visitor through the medium of digitalphotography and social networks. Technology allows for greateraccess both in capturing the moment and connecting with others.Still, those bits of documentation cannot be relied uponcompletely because there is as much deception in an image or a"tweet" as there is in the memory. it is all a matter of perception,and we found, much like the fictitious Marco Polo, every time wedescribed the city we visited we were describing home.our work presents the many facets of a travelers life, beyond thatof mere tourists, and observes the skewed perceptions and ideasabout people and places and also pinpoints those moments whenthe identities of tourist and native intersect.

The city does not always consist of this, but of relationships

between the measurements of it's space and events of its

past....i realized i had to free myself from the images which

in the past had announced to me the things i sought: only

then would i succeed in understanding...

When asked to interpret italo Calvino's novel, invisible

Cities, Candace and i were a bit uncertain about how to

approach the task, until we stepped into the shoes of Marco

Polo, Calvino's protagonist, and saw first hand the many

dimensions in which one exists as they travel. The

experience not only brought new perspectives of ourselves

as travelers but brought clarity to our views of our own lives

as natives in our homeland.

We WoUld liKe To THanK everyone for yoUr SUPPorTand ParTiCiPaTion in THe organizaTion of THiS evenT, and We

WoUld liKe To offer a SPeCial THanK yoU To:

gabriella ganugi

luca Bucciarelli

david Horan

eva Sauer

eleonora accorsi

david Weiss

daphne Mazzanti

lucia giardino

Crystal goudsouzian

rebecca dyck-laumann

gail King Warren

The art department at the University of Memphis

and of course...

our families

Without you all none of this would be an actuality. Thank you!

Nadia Bseisod iva

www.palazziflorence.com