Since I wanted to do something more personal, I decided to focus on South Tyrol, my home region, and its cultural diversity. South Tyrol has a population of nearly 470,000, where around two-thirds speak German as their mother tongue, just over a quarter speak Italian as their first language, and about 20,000 people speak Ladin, a pre-Italian Alpine Romance language. Today, the German- and Ladin-speaking communities benefit from significant cultural and administrative autonomy, which includes bilingual education in German and Italian. South Tyrol is officially bilingual, with both German and Italian as official languages, while Ladin is recognized in the Ladin-speaking valleys.
Growing up in South Tyrol, I experienced life between two distinct cultures, Italian and German, which coexist in the same space without fully merging. I like to picture them as two soap bubbles that float alongside one another, each aware of the other’s presence but remaining distinct. Language is a core part of culture, yet living in a space where two languages coexist raises questions about identity and belonging. Do you have to choose a side to feel a sense of belonging? Can you fully inhabit the in-between? I’ve often been asked if I feel more German or Italian, but I don’t have a simple answer.
In my project, I explore my experience of growing up bilingual within South Tyrol’s unique cultural landscape, using images and photography to convey both the benefits and complexities of this dual identity. Some images come from my childhood or from my father’s photo albums. I aim to show how this dual-language experience has shaped both my identity and the evolving cultural dynamics of the region today. The scanner acts as a tool for storytelling, helping me express the nuances of identity within a multilingual context.
Using the scanner, I represent this “third space”—a space of identity that is neither entirely one culture nor the other. The final images are distorted and blurred, capturing the tension of this interwoven experience. The goal isn’t to merge these identities but to present them as a unified whole. The work reflects how identities evolve, shaped by multiple influences, and how they, like memories, are never static.
