Overtaking

A fine but resilient thread links in Italy the privation and hardship of the post-war period with the economic boom that would burst forth throughout the sixties. Overtaking is not only a reference to the 1962 film The Easy Life (originally released as Il sorpasso, literally “overtaking”), now firmly embedded in popular culture. It evokes the idea of a country that accelerates, vying for a position – not without some show of aggression, vulgarity, and swagger – one that somehow overtakes itself, managing to forge ahead despite the social problems it often leaves unsolved or are created by the rapid development itself.

Text in English and Italian.