‘Etichette Buchette’ {alias EtiBu*} stems from the meeting between Lorenzo Scacchia & Matteo Faglia, founder&president of Associazione Buchette del Vino in Florence (what are “buchette del vino” aka wine windows?).
Scacchia – ahhblissfulnaivety – proposes launching a synergetic vinous Incipitojo: Labels of imaginary wines placed on empty glass bottles, positioned inside wine windows; from there, an invitation to passers-by to write inspired by those wines, with an annexed literary competition. Well, needless to say, the idea soon proves to be nearly impractical (how many bottles would survive the first night out in the open?). But the good Faglia relaunches, proposing what then becomes the framework for EtiBu.
Scacchia creates the labels & twelve pens become inebriated with those wines, drawing from them in complete freedom: Valentina Barile, Paolo Di Paolo, Carlotta Fruttero, Leonardo Gori, Lia Levi, Sacha Naspini, Anna Prandoni, Alessandro Raveggi, Vanni Santoni, Marco Vichi, Christine Von Borries, Paola Zannoner. Another pen, belonging to eleven-year-old** Dominik Moser Zwerger, lends itself to the game on its own initiative (here is his story, in Italian).
Another cornerstone of EtiBu are the portraits by Scacchia, protagonists of the exhibition. Each label, placed on an empty bottle, is photographed inside or next to a wine window in the historic centre of Florence. Scacchia & Faglia – both frantic – spend a day across the Arno River, matching labels to wine windows. And in most cases, involving unsuspecting passers-by in the construction of the scene: Their hands, arms and bodies become an essential part of the portraits.