Feeding Geographies
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Dates2019 - 2020
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Author
Lorenzo, my first child, turned one on March 4th, 2020, just before the beginning of Italy's lockdown for the Covid19 pandemic. With his birth my life took on new reference points: care and feeding – in a material, emotional and psychological sense – have become the elements that mark our time and everyday relationships, as well as the spaces and objects in our home.
Taking care of a child entails enormous and conflicting emotions, being a parent forces you to confront the subtle ambivalence many situations are loaded with, difficult and wonderful, simple and exhausting at the same time.
In this first year as a mother my personal universe has been condensed and has shrunk in size and scale; we lived life in our home in a more intense and extended way. This immersion in domestic life increased further with the quarantine measures during the pandemic, eventually creating a sort of suspension in our life.
As for most mothers (and fathers) during the lockdown, much of my energy was devoted to the care of my child, and at the same time to the difficult attempt at organizing my days between work – or what remains of it – and domestic life. Lorenzo did not realize what was going on, even though he sometimes appeared nervous and impatient; fortunately, three rooms and two balconies still represent a universe for him to explore.