'Traiettorie Liquide' by Federica Brignone
04/07/2022
The project "Traiettorie Liquide" by Federica Brignone on display at the Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti
until 31st August
The most successful lady of the Italian national alpine ski team launched her "fifth trajectory" in Cortina. At the Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti, for the first time all her "Traiettorie Liquide", stages of a project that has been running since 2017, will be exhibited all together.
Videos and images by photographer Giuseppe La Spada tell the story of an environmental education initiative that has been progressing for five years.
Cortina d'Ampezzo, 4th July 2022_ From sea level to 2,732 metres of altitude, across seas, lakes, rivers and glaciers: Federica Brignone's "Traiettorie Liquide" (Italian for "Liquid Trajectories"), launched in 2017 in the waters of Lipari, have reached the high mountains and the high-tech exhibition and museum centre Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti located at the top station of the Lagazuoi cable car between Cortina d'Ampezzo and Alta Badia.
The exhibition was inaugurated on 2nd July in the presence of Federica Brignone. She accompanied the visitors through the three exhibition rooms and told them about the stages of her journey: since 2017, the top athlete has dedicated herself – among the first - to the health of the water in all its forms and environmental protection.
The concept
The record-breaking lady – the first Italian woman to win the overall Ski World Cup and three World Cup races in three different disciplines, the most successful Italian woman ever in the World Cup, winner of three Olympic medals including two at the last Olympic Games in Beijing 2022 - is also committed to environmental protection with communication campaigns and environmental education.
Brignone has placed her popularity at the service of an awareness project conceived by her managers Giulia and Daniela Mancini and realized with the valuable contribution of the photographer Giuseppe La Spada, one of the most interesting and original visual artists on the international scene.
"How can I make myself useful and help with a little stone to build a mountain, or rather, to find the solution?" wondered Federica when the project was presented to her. "Her answer was: I can tell about it."
That's how her photo shoots and environmental education initiatives began, which are also aimed at children through a mascot, the dolphin Blue, which the skier takes with her to competitions all over the world on her helmet and gloves.
Each year the champion chooses a new challenge and shines the spotlight on an aspect related to the protection of the environment and especially on water, the source of life on this planet. The latest of these experiences is the one presented to the public as an absolute preview on the theme of DECARBONIZATION at Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti.
The five “Liquid Trajectories“
- The first phase took place in 2017 at Lipari in Sicily, the scene of an unprecedented photo shoot: with the help of a team of divers, Federica immersed herself in the water in her ski racing outfit, with helmet, boots, skis and ski sticks to draw attention to the damage that man does to the sea.
- In the second trajectory, made in 2018, the skier immersed in a pool for a new shooting but this time, while diving, she was surrounded by plastic packaging, just like the marine fauna suffocated by waste.
- With the third trajectory, in 2019, Brignone dived into the waters of Lake Garda to create a clean-up relay with children.
- In 2020, for the fourth phase, the scenario changed again: this time the set was the Forni dello Stelvio glacier, Italy’s second-largest valley glacier, which in a century has lost half of its surface. Federica Brignone was wearing a white dress made from waste material and a tricolour cape and was holding the World Cup in her hand, as an allegoric figure.
- Made in June 2022, the fifth trajectory is very impressive and impactful. Federica impersonates Planet Earth in poor condition due to a climate disaster. Federica, namely Planet Earth, seems to have limited residual autonomy, so limited that we see her with a bubble that surrounds her head and isolates her, for a short while yet, from the disastrous atmosphere. The skier is faced with a real struggle for survival: the only way to reach salvation is decarbonization, reachable through a transition from fossil to renewable energy sources and only through a shared path with the entire ecosystem.
A surreal scenery: the continuous rise in temperatures, pollution, and drought make the situation increasingly looming and dangerous. The humans have no more time to postpone further. Federica, aware of the dramatic situation, addresses the theme in person through the communication means of communication she knows best: her being a ski champion. In this journey, Federica imagines being in a video game that, however, she cannot decide to stop by simply turning off the console. It is a challenge we are all forced to face in order not to become passive victims and compromise our existence. Therefore she decides to take action and lead by example as a warrior, managing to dominate the situation and becoming the architect of her destiny again.
The journey leaves one last message of hope for the future: even the most difficult challenge can be overcome. The important thing is to act with the awareness of being part of an ecosystem that has to be respected, protected, and not exploited. Thus, finally, even the images change their content and grey gives way to colour, the dress, expression of the Earth, comes back to life.
In the Fifth Trajectory, Federica Brignone proposes to follow the path of decarbonisation as concretely as possible, adopting in everyday life behaviours and lifestyles that favour the reduction of CO₂ emissions, thus favouring sustainable energy systems.
Federica proposes behaviours that everyone can put into practice individually in everyday life in a very simple way, making our world more livable and healthy and guaranteeing a future for all. She says, for example:
“I don’t feel the difference between 20 and 21 degrees. If we lower the home thermostat by 1 degree, we will save money, reduce pollution in the cities and produce fewer CO₂. Let’s not exaggerate with air conditioning. Let’s not waste time in the shower: 3 minutes are enough, never more than 5 minutes, and avoid keeping water too hot. We will consume less and have less water to heat, up to a third of a bath, and we will produce less CO₂.”
Recycling is another key element of the fifth trajectory: “Let's recycle and reuse, DECARBONIZE the earth!” and “Recycling allows us to save energy for production and reduces the use of raw materials whose extraction consumes a lot of CO₂. In addition, waste disposal is one of the main causes of climate-damaging emissions”.
Learn more on the website traiettorieliquide.it
