It’s a new world order. A concoction of scenes and characters that a European stage could have never offered me. It’s a contemporary version of the Athenian tragedy of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles where Thebes is the Bronx and Corinth the outskirt of Baltimore. The skin of the main characters of this epopee has so much melanin that their stories and movements blend with the blue hues of the moonlight.
Oedipus enters the scene and “New World Order” by FLATBUSH ZOMBiES feels the air; the flashing lights of Coney Island start follow the rhythm of his steps, he seems to command the entire area.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Will Smith are mythological deities, emblems of mankind virtues and defects, their faces decorate the spaces of the civil temple of a religion called capitalism.
Cotton candy and hot dogs are the incenses of profane social rituals that can only remain a secret for me.
The synthetic hair extensions of the muses of this legendary island of entertainment are shiny like the stars and their moves and their hips are seductively following the rhythm of Missy Elliot’s “She’s A B**ch.”
Isn’t this an imaginary land? A land whose memories will only be preserved by my own nostalgic storytelling once I’m back wherever I belong. If I ever have belonged.
It’s a story of sudden belonging — a weird, cosy yet refreshing experience. A previously unknown sense of comfort somehow attached to my boarding pass. Did I need to come this far to work with my imagination? Or this just an imaginary travel?
This Schön! online exclusive has been produced by
photography. Vincent Urbani
words. Paolo Maurizio Talanti
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