A Tribute to Lucio Dalla
Coloured pencil and ink pen
60 x 40 cm (23.6 x 15.7 inches)
“Cantautore” is an Italian term referring to a musician who writes and performs their own songs. In English, this concept can be translated as “singer-songwriter,” which literally means someone who both sings and writes songs.
A singer-songwriter writes their own songs instead of solely performing pieces written by others.
Lucio Dalla was an Italian singer-songwriter, celebrated as one of the leading cantautori (plural of cantautore) of his generation.
The idea of representing an author through their words serves to highlight the illusion that our idol corresponds to the real person, onto whom we project admiration, love, envy, and expectations.
We often have the illusion of knowing the artists we love, but in reality, we only know a part of them, the part they have chosen, more or less consciously, to show.
Depicting a musician through their songs serves as a reminder that the artist and the person do not coincide, and that we are merely observing the image of that person that we have in mind.
To delineate the face of Lucio Dalla, I selected 983 words from some of his most representative songs.