Alfio Tommasini

The people of “Via Lactea” follow a story that began with a genetic mutation in their ancestors, shortly after the first agricultural settlements. A change that allowed them to tolerate lactose even at an adult age, thus facilitating their survival in this harsh mountainous lands.
Although the consumption of milk is not a matter of survival anymore, breeders and producers, convinced of the goodness of their product and worried about the decrease in consumption, make sure that their own people aren’t going to lose this characteristic based on an enzyme that stays active only if continuously stimulated.
In a context of modern agriculture, I wanted to interpret the relation between men and animals, through something apparently ordinary, but strongly related with the continuous transformation of this lands and the habits of their inhabitants.
During seemingly never ending winters, I observed the people who earn their living from milk production, trying to find in them the reflections of that mysterious enzyme they preserve, as a characteristic of their nature.