Just 2 days before the launch of the AQA Series, let me introduce you a specific segment of the Series – Galosce, Zhiguli (Qaloş, Jiquli).
This segment will feature Azerbaijani youth, who pursued their dreams in Italy with grit. Not an easy beat. They are trailblazers in their own right. This youth has a lot to offer and a lot to learn from, be example and inspiration.
I thought a lot (and deep) about the name for this segment. It had to be about ‘exposure’. Naturally, my mind wondered about my own early exposure to Italy. In the memory line Galosce (Qaloş) came first 🙂 You see even in a remote mountainous village or in a refugee life in some stable or farm those galosci were telling:). Oh even more, my grandma used to sew buttons on the galosci – buttons of different colors on each kid’s pair, as they were literally the same piece of black rubber. Now, looking back, those buttons, more precisely, the color of those buttons was an important identity detail. Who would dare mess with the color of other kids? Not me!:)
Talking about color, who knew that it was an Italian designer who brought galoshes into pop culture by coloring them in bright colors? Hello, cute rain boots!
If you ask about -Zhiguli (Jiquli)…I am not talking about candies (caramelle), but a version of Fiat bought by the Soviets. Zhiguli was a collective Soviet exposure to Italy:)
So, Galosce and Zhiguli are two things come to my mind when I think of the word “exposure”. Let me know what do you associate with the word “exposure”.