'Ama chi ti ama' Art Contest - Quando sento il primo fischio, a song from the Silk Mill - Pa

Dec 21, 2017
2 min read

AMA CHI TI AMA “I tempi della vita cantati dalle donne”

'Love who loves you' - 'Times of life sung by women' is an art contest that challenges illustrators and comic artists to create two artworks inspired by the italian labour music tradition, as seen and sung by women.

Conceived by the De Martino Institute for Anthropological Studies and Ala Bianca Group Srl, the challenge's goal is to collect images to depict the 40 tracks of the music collection “Ama chi ti ama – I tempi della vita cantati dalle donne” (Warner Music distribution), that'll be published on Women's Day 2018. Although the contest doesn't offer a money reward, its purpose is noble, and it's a potentially interesting exposure chance.

I was assigned to illustrate the track n. 10, a song from the recent past of my country, when the first silk mills appeared, to make good use of the poorest peasants of Italy.

'Quando sento il primo fischio' ('When I hear the first whistling') was a hit among the women working in silk mills, repeated restlessly as long as their extremely heavy tasks.

filanda Romanin-Jacur, historical silk factory in Venice, early 1900s

Source: filanda di Salzano

A typical example of italian labour chant, 'Quando sento il primo fischio' was crafted and modified to adapt to the singers' lives and memories.

'fischio', sketch

The whistling coming from the silk mill was the ring tone which outclassed the church bells in the poor

provinces where the italian entrepreneurship set the highly rewarding business of silk throwing.

Characters

The filandere (women working at the factory) sustained turns up to fourteen hours, with short stops to eat and corporal relieves, and the average pay was two to five Lire per day (for comparison, a bicycle in 1935 would cost 185 Lire).

The managing tasks were (predictably) reserved to men, and each department was under the strict surveillance of 'el diretur' (manager).

Workers saw their already slim paychecks constantly threatened by the application of an internal system of fines: the 'multa', as sang in 'Quando sento il primo fischio'.

Part 2 - Comic