Homemade Theatrical Prosthetics

"A world that longer exists, "by Tiziano Terzani

of Gianni Quilici

It 's a book full of charm and is a beautiful gift that the child Folco made retrospectively to the father Tiziano Terzani.

" a world that no longer exists" retraces, concisely and in a different The end is my beginning , because texts chosen by this and other photos that weaves his books Terzani has achieved during his career as a journalist and beyond.

The novelty is mainly the photos, including several very significant.

Let me give you pedantically: Page 23, 28, 44, 46-7, 55, 62, 66-7, 78-9, 94-5, 107, 109-10, 113, 119, 132-3, 135 , 136, 138-9, 152-3, 154, 155, 156-7, 164-5, 171, 174-5, 186, 188-9, 194-5, 205, 216, 221, 222-3, 224 -5, 240, 248-9, 256-7 (the most intriguing), 260,262-3,264-5, 269, 270-1, 276-7, 278, 279-80, 285, 287. They are significant because, in many cases, are unique testimonies. So are photographically perché colgono attimi poetici in una struttura compositiva complessa e-o essenziale.

Potrebbero suggerire, viene da pensare, un ulteriore libro esclusivamente su Terzani fotografo, valorizzando soltanto o soprattutto l'immagine.

Tuttavia ciò che affascina in questo, come in altri suoi libri, è la qualità avventurosa della vita di Tiziano Terzani.

La vita di Terzani, come si desume anche da questo libro, è fatta di svolte. Le svolte di scelte coraggiose, in certi casi, quasi avventurose. In questo volume si inizia da un Terzani pieno di miti del '68 (dalla guerra popolare vietnamita a Mao e alla rivoluzione maoista) to find the end in harmony with the silence of creation in 2004 on 'Himalaya, in complete solitude, with the extreme need to live and communicate.

Yet this continual questioning Terzani has represented (and represented himself) a large portion of Asia in his tumultuous change: the Vietnamese victory against the boundless American power, the disappointment of Maoism and the destruction of an ancient civilization , patterns of working and living in a devastating hyper-technologized Japan, the dissolution of the Soviet Union over Eastern Europe, the carnage in the Philippines and in Cambodia after Pol Pot, the train trip to Asia without any obligation of journalism, the fabulous kingdom of Mustang, a mirage in the mountains, the extraordinary diversity of civilization and humanity in India, and finally the withdrawal of the great Himalayas.

" a world that no longer exists" is, therefore, a book of the eyes, but also a book that provokes a desire to move. A movement through space and set an existential. A book that carries within it and at the same time off. Tiziano Terzani has made these last two movements from separate bodies.

The challenge, in this world that Terzani had covered, analyzed, represented, might perhaps be that of reunification. At that level of penetration historical-intellectual and even human. Because at the end of his message are listening and love what is most humble and necessary, real and radical.

Tiziano Terzani. A world that no longer exists. Photographs and texts chosen by Folco Terzani. Longanesi. P. 302. € 22.00.