Il mare tra noi
2025 | Research, Publication Design, Illustration
I have long been interested in questions of identity and belonging, and in the relationship between personal and collective memory: the different forms memory takes, and the ways it is told and preserved. I took my MFA thesis as an opportunity to explore these themes through the history of my maternal family, the Vincenti.
The part of history I chose to reconstruct begins around 1860 and ends a century later. It spans four generations and five countries: from Livorno to Haifa (Palestine) in the final decades of the Ottoman Empire and during the years of the British Mandate; to the prison camps in Kenya and Uganda during the Second World War; and finally to exile in Beirut (Lebanon) after the Palestinian exodus of 1948.
The project is articulated in two parts: a research book and an illustrated book.
The research book, Frammenti di una storia familiare: tra memoria personale e collettiva (English title: Fragments of a family story: between personal and collective memory), brings together historical research on the places and periods my family lived through, the history of the Vincenti family, a selection of its photographic archive, references of graphic novels by various authors and illustrators, and a section dedicated to the development of the illustrated book (concept, script, sketches, and technique).
The illustrated book, Il mare tra noi (English title: The sea between us), builds on this research and tells the story of the Vincenti family through a more intimate lens, centered on the life of my late grandfather, Elio. Through a delicate dialogue between text and image, the narrative unfolds as a tapestry of exile, courage, cultural richness, and diasporic voices.
This project is not intended merely as an act of personal remembrance, but as an exploration of the space where personal and collective histories intersect: a way of safeguarding memory while opening it to the reader, and of giving form to what lingers, fragmented yet enduring.
Research book
Format: 14.8 x 21 cm, 272 pages
Illustrated book
Format: 21 x 29.7 cm, 32 pages
Format: 21 x 29.7 cm, 32 pages
Technique: Digital illustration
MFA Thesis Project | Higher Institute for Artistic Industries (ISIA Urbino)
Advisors: Anselmo Roveda and Pia Valentinis
Grade: 110/110 con lode (110/110 with highest honors)
