A Diplomatic childhood and the question of where - and what - home is
ALESSIA: I think there’s a topic that maybe we’ve never really discussed properly, and maybe I’m also a little biased about it because, I mean, you know it’s related to my job now. I don’t know… sometimes I wonder about it, you know? Especially when I think about my future, about having a family, children, while doing this job. I wanted to ask you, I mean, I’d like to hear a little from you about how you experienced it.
What does it mean to be the daughter of someone who works in diplomacy and therefore maybe to grow up, on the one hand, in a kind of bubble, and, on the other hand, to feel like you belong a little bit everywhere and a little bit nowhere? I mean, did you experience it that way? What was your childhood like? What was it like for you knowing that your dad did this job? In the way you related to Rome or to the other cities you lived in, whether you travelled with your father, in the way you related to other people, and in the way you built your own identity.
Because I mean you also went on to do something completely different with your life.
I remember, I mean, I have this one day fixed in my mind when we ran into each other, when you had come back to Rome for a weekend, at Emporio, and you said to me, “No, well, I never come back, because anyway my parents are in Thailand, right? I mean, so if I come here, I’m alone.” What’s is home to you? Is Rome your home at the moment? Is home wherever your parents are? Is it wherever you are? Is it wherever Paloma is? I mean, what kind of relationship do you also have with the idea of home?
Maybe a slightly existential question, but I’m curious.
YASMINA: Wow so many questions in one question lol I am going to try to answer everything.
If I grew up in a bubble. Yes, it was a bubble. But it was an incredibly exciting bubble.
Growing up as a diplomat kid felt like I was on holidays all the time. And now when I think about it, I don’t know if it’s because I was a diplomat’s kid, or because it was, “childhood”, or probably also the magical place where I grew up in, which is Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi is such a fantastic place to be a kid, especially in the years that I was living there (2006-2011). Super international, a lot of, opportunities to just PLAY. But yeah, your question was not about where but more about how, right?
Identity-wise, you ask if the places where I’ve travelled to with my dad + Rome built my identity. My answer: it’s crazy because I always say that my identity was really shaped by cultural rather not geographical experiences. Books, movies, songs, and of course people. I don’t belong anywhere. I don’t belong to anyone. I think I really... I mean, I don’t want to sound fucking obvious, but I am the people that have entered my life, the people that have left it, and this project is really about this, I think. I wish I was more influenced by places. But I’m not, I’m really not.
I don’t have any childhood trauma. I think the misconception around children of diplomats is that, you know, they grow up in different places, and they’re fragmented.
I am fragmented. I am fucking fragmented, but that fragmentation is just magical!!! I wish for everyone to feel fragmented at some point in their lives, because then you’re there, and you’re putting the pieces back together to construct something and it makes sense, and it’s insane how much it makes sense. It’s just insane.
Rome…. Rome tortured me lol. I am sooooo sorry, I need to make peace with it for the reason that many of the people that I love live in Rome. But still, I avoid it so much. Big time avoidance. I lost touch with some friends because they won’t leave Rome. Same for relationships. I think the other person wanting to live there vs. me wanting to espace was defo a factor in one or two breakups.
Alsooooo and finally I would say home is about my rituals. And my rituals are here. I really feel at home in Paris now. In my neighbourhood, the 6th + some parts of the Marais. I even feel at home in my current apartment, I’ve changed so many apartments and this is the one that feels the most like home.
Bangkok to some extent is also home, not only because of my parents, but because of all the network that I am so fotunate to have there. So many amazing people. And yeah. But definitely Paris, which to me feels like the ultimate final destination, because of many artifacts and cultural things, plus all my objects are here.
Some people in my life have been trying to push me away from Paris, and I never... I could never. It’s crazy. But let’s see maybe I change my mind in a couple of years!!!!