Talking teens are here: the telephone rings and, when you get the call, you hear a voice greeting you and saying: “Hi, it’s Giuseppe Verdi…”

Talking statues is an innovative project that is a real journey into time. The statues in town, from their pedestal take visitors back into their time and tell their stories. It’s a project by the cultural association ECHO, created by Paola Greci, thanks to the contribution of Comune di Parma and Fondazione Cariparma, OCME and Uniontel (technical sponsor of the traditional telephone call), with the school of art Toschi and the Institute Tecnico ITIS Da Vinci with FAI Delegazione di Parma, and the collaboration of 15 high schools of Parma and the province, Consulta del Dialetto parmigiano, Famija Pramzana, ENS Parma (Ente Nazionale Sordi), ANMIC Parma (Associazione Nazionale Mutilati e Invalidi Civili), UIC Parma (Unione Italiana Ciechi).

A journey into time, an itinerary among 16 statues on the squares of Parma:
Arianna, Gruppo del Sileno, Giuseppe Verdi (who has two statues, one on Piazzale della Pace and one on Piazzale della Casa della Musica), Vittorio Bottego, La Vittoria, Il Parmigianino, Enzo Sicuri, Il Partigiano, Padre Lino, Filippo Corridoni, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Il Correggio, Ercole e Anteo (both the original one and the copy), Arturo Toscanini – they will come alive through a telephone call that visitors receive on their mobile with the help of new technologies (APP, QR CODE and traditional telephone).

The telephone calls are available also in English thanks to the voices of Brian Ayres, Dylan Ayres, Sharon Fryer, Mary Cipriani, Guido Grignaffini and the students Daniele Napodano, Paolo Saviotti and Yasmine Guilo. A couple of calls are also in Parma dialect with the voices of the actors Giancarlo Ilari and Maurizio Trapelli (Al Dsèvod, the Parma mask).

Similar projects are already available in cities around the world (as London and New York) but Talking Teens is different because is created by teens and for teens, whose aim is to develop relations of inclusion in the community, it’s accessible through technological devices for different targets opf people and to everybody – “for all” (motor and sensory disabilities) thanks to a panel in braille and a video call in LIS, the Italian language of signs.

How it works
Go in front of one of the statues included in the tour and featured on the map, you can get a telephone call by the character portrayed, the statues will tell you their story in about 2-3 minutes.
You can choose to listen to the telephone call in three different ways: you can dial the number, scan the QR code located on the panel near the statue or download the app. English is also available.

Duration of the itinerary:

Complete itinerary: 16 statues, 5100 steps, about 4,4 km, about 3 hours by foot (included the time of the telephone calls), 1,5 h by bike.

Historical center itinerary: 9 statues, 1390 steps, about 1 km, about 1 hour by foot (included the time of the telephone calls), 40’ by bike