Martina Melilli's 'Dialoghi da/di un isolamento' documents quarantine video calls

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Italian filmmaker and video artist Martina Melilli (born 1987) launched a participatory project titled 'Dialoghi da/di un isolamento' (Dialogues from/of an isolation). Each day, she schedules a video call with anyone who responds to her open invitation on social media, recording the conversation. Around 6:30 PM, she posts an image sent by her interlocutor—a view from a window, a workspace, or a room—accompanied by a brief summary of their discussion. The project uses the hashtag #dialoghidadiunisolamento. Melilli describes it as a form of personal and social resistance: 'In this way I impose an opening, at a time when everything closes, closes itself.' She also aims to create an archive of these extraordinary times, preserving traces of the pandemic's impact on individual and collective life. The future use of the recordings remains undecided. Melilli is known for her works 'MUM, I'M SORRY' and 'My home, in Libya,' which have been selected at international festivals and won awards.