In her most recent series exhibited at La Vetrina in Venice, Karla Hiraldo Voleau explores what it means to be a teenager in Italy today. So far, Karla Hiraldo Voleau has travelled to Roma, Venezia, Reggio Emilia, and Sardegna to create a portrait of the young generation and their relationship to love and intimacy, as to friendship, and to understand their beliefs, hopes and worries. Made of photographs, texts and audio recordings, this series offers an understanding of young Italian Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2010), and more widely, a polymorph portrait of teenagers today.
“The project began after I first watched Comizi d’Amore (1964) by Pier Paolo Pasolini. In this documentary, Pasolini traveled throughout Italy asking people intimate questions about morality, sexuality, and societal values — crafting a radical and subversive portrait of the country.
With Frammenti, I aim to update this method: to document and listen, and to understand today’s Italy through the voices of its youth. I engage with the Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2010) through in-depth interviews in Italian, a language I’ve committed to learning 3 years ago.
We discuss topics ranging from language and emotional expression to identity, attraction, family dynamics, and the influence of social media. Themes of feminism, mental health, masculinity, and systemic violence — especially femicides and toxic relationships in Italy — are also a big focus of mine.
Each interview I do is paired with a portrait taken in the school environment. Some students share stories of trauma, anxiety, gender exploration, or social injustice. With others, we reflect on regional identity, family separation, falling in love, or the struggle to imagine a future in Italy.
The result is an intimate and political collective portrait — made with and not only about its subjects. The work is both visual and textual: I transcribe hours of recorded audio, I extract meaningful passages, and retype them by hand, creating visual-textual compositions. I type the texts manually, on thermal paper using an old electronic typewriter. It’s slow, allows for typos and scratches— there’s no copy-paste possible. This process brings me back to school, and it helps their voices really settle into the work, as I work hours on end on each piece.”
Karla Hiraldo Voleau – FRAMMENTI A snapshot of adolescence
20 June–18 July 2026
La Vetrina
Fondamenta de la Tana 2101
30122 Venice, Italy
lavetrina.ch
With the support of the City of Lausanne
