TORONTO – A country is made of places and people. And no statistic, no political or media narrative can truly describe it for what it really is. You have to go there, to those places; meet them, those people. This is what Italian writer and researcher Arianna Dagnino and Italian sociologist and photographer Stefano Gulmanelli did, traveling for 75 days and over 21,000 kilometers across Canada.
From the Pacific to the Atlantic and back, Arianna (in the pic above) and Stefano crossed provinces, regions, and communities, meeting artists, First Nations elders, farmers, academics, writers, newcomers, and ordinary people. Documenting everything in writing and images, and packing it into a “travel bag” they now want to reopen and share with others.
In fact, they have already begun doing so virtually, through a dedicated newsletter published on the “Substack” platform, where it is possible to follow reflections, stories, and images from the journey (by subscribing—free of charge—to the basic newsletter at https://canadiensis.substack.com).
Now, however, the sharing becomes real and physical, thanks to a series of conferences taking place in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montréal. The title is the same as the newsletter: “Canadiensis: Meeting the People Who Make a Country.” Each event will feature a lecture by Arianna and Stefano (in the pic below, together), accompanied by a small exhibition of eight photographs taken during the journey. “The photographs offer intimate glimpses of landscapes and encounters that shaped the experience, inviting the audience to observe Canada through the lens of human connection,” the two researchers explain, proposing a reflective and visually rich perspective on the country seen from the ground up, “on the road,” as the expression goes.
The “Canadiensis” project originates from field notes, conversations, and photographic documentation gathered along a real, “on-the-ground” journey, and is therefore more authentic and representative of the country than any other form of depiction. As a result, there is no single narrative of Canada: the country appears instead as a living mosaic of stories, experiences, and even radically different identities across an immense territory.
Here are the details of the three conferences: Toronto, Saturday May 2, 11–12 a.m., Villa Charities, 901 Lawrence Ave West, North York; Ottawa, Tuesday May 5, 6–8 p.m., TB 360 Room, Tory Building, Carleton University; Montréal, Wednesday May 6, 6–8 p.m., Italian Cultural Institute of Montréal, 1200 Avenue du Dr Penfield. All three events are organized by the Embassy of Italy in Ottawa in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institutes of Toronto and Montréal and “Librissimi – Toronto Italian Book Festival.” Admission is free.
In the top photo, Arianna Dagnino and Stefano Gulmanelli; below, the poster for the three conferences.
