Event #7

In recent times we have witnessed the rise of increasing attention towards preadolescence, a period corresponding to the middle school years, characterized by the physical and psychological changes that come with puberty. On the population of this age, inhabiting one of the most delicate ‘middle earths’ of the cycle of life, the current narcissistic culture seems to have produced effects that are often explosive and always devoid of the capacity for interpretation and intervention. The concrete and often incoherent languages with which preadolescents express themselves are currently taking on particularly dramatic forms: these youngsters stop studying, they become troubled students, or else they isolate themselves in books, devoured by their performance anxieties; they often either adorn their body or resort to self-harm. Sofia Bignamini tries to decrypt the mysterious codes steeped in creativity of today’s pre-adolescents, immersing us in their worlds to try to offer adults an opportunity to understand and a language with which to communicate.