Parallel Realities
by Catia Montagna
"I consider consumerism as a form of fascism worse than the classical one ... A form of fascism capable of homogenising societies by depriving of reality the different lifestyles." (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
The world over, we go about our life surrounded by images and messages designed to draws us into an artificial world that commodifies our daily experiences. By offering the alluring suggestion of a comforting escape from our ‘normal’, these images generate ever evolving material needs. But, crucially, they also propose unattainable role models. Palpable is then the contrast between our real lives and the idealised lives of this glossy other world we are invited to crave for. A world that makes our normality look 'imperfect'.
