
Ted la Talpa nella città turistica
April 29, 2023
Ted is a narrative voice connecting different historical spaces and times. Ted the mole is a non-conformist, often moving in a direction opposite to the norm. Ted is the result of a mistake, he is a viral representation. A polyphonic collection of story fragments, collective reflections, atmospheres and new spatial references.
On Saturday, April 29, we took an urban critique sound walk with Ted The Mole (it. Ted La Talpa), a pseudonym for a multiple entity in perpetual flux composed of urban researchers, artists, social changers, and activists. A project started in 2018 with the aim to show the absurdity of mass tourism and to investigate around the impact of touristification on our lives.
The mole’s voice and that of other storytellers invited participants to get lost in the city’s historic center, locate security cameras, and pin observations and unexpected encounters on their maps. We then met again in Ted’s ‘temporary temple’ where we reframed the drifting experience and devised new ways to continue this quest.
URBANSCAPES
URBANSCAPES is a tool for investigating transformations affecting public space. Through the practices of reappropriation and re-signification pursued by those who inhabit the urban fabric, the series aims to invite us to rethink our posture and our relationship with the body of the city by delving into the experience of collectives, movements, third sector entities, projects, and artists who promote alternative codes of interaction to those predetermined. Can participation in the life of the city free itself from the binding superstructures of consumption and decorum? What other relationships are possible with public space? With the second editions of URBANSCAPES, Street Levels Gallery and A Testa Alta E.T.S. intend to continue this conversation by combining the talk tool with performances, audio walks, urban treks, sit-ins and participatory experiences to propose unpredictable encounters with the city ecosystem.
Ted La Talpa
Ted is the result of an error, a literal and compositional mistake. Ted is the residue, the excluded from the central discourse. Ted is there on the margin of the tombstone that inaugurates a performative funeral procession dedicated to the Square. Ted – In the touristic city is the first chapter of Ted’s story. Ted is a stranger or, rather, an alienating and imaginary character. Ted is a narrative connector of places, people, and urban phenomena. Ted ideally follows the tradition of the multiple name, problematizing the authorial dimension of knowledge. In a context of narrative speculation, Ted becomes an urban fossil trace, foreshadowing another possible future.
ABOUT US
Via Palazzuolo 74ar 50123, Firenze (FI)
ALTRO