2009

Dei volti affioranti sulla superficie dall’acqua, alcuni con la bocca aperta come per cercare l’aria, altri, invece, che mostrano la rigidità di chi non ha più bisogno di aria. Penso a quanto succede non troppo distante dalle nostre coste, una moltitudine di corpi sospesi nell’acqua. La leggerezza della carta ben esprime, secondo me, la leggerezza di quelle vite.
Delle crisalidi che fluttuano al minimo soffio di vento, in cui l’illuminazione particolare evidenzia l’inconsistenza del materiale di cui sono fatte.

I calchi sono del mio viso, ho voluto rimanere per almeno alcuni minuti in quella immobilità, con quella difficoltà respiratoria a cui sei costretto a quando il tuo viso è coperto di gesso e la mente ti porta via da dove sei, in un distesa d’acqua.
I 25 calchi sono in carta giapponese, sospesi con dei fili di nylon a circa 30 cm. da terra.

110×140 cm
Carta giapponese, filo di nylon

A theme that unfortunately has been under our eyes for a few years is the tragedy of those who risk life to find a little bit of hope, and right in the water they gamble away all they have . It is the duality of water: to give life, to take away life. In my work there are faces emerging on the water surface, some with their mouth open as if to look for air, others, which show the stiffness of those who no longer need air. That’s what happens not too far from our shores, a multitude of bodies suspended in the water. The lightness of paper expresses, in my opinion, the lightness of those lives.
Chrysalis floating at the slightest wind blowing, where the particular lighting highlights the inconsistency of the material they are made of.
The 25 casts are in Japanese paper, suspended with nylon threads about 30 cm from the ground. Each piece is made of multiple layers of paper but this material is so light that light goes through it anyway, highlighting every single layer as if it were a radiograph. The suspension from the ground makes the entire installation sensitive even to the simple passage of a nearby person: the slight movement of the air impresses a slow movement on every single piece of the work, a movement that magically succeeds in creating an expanse of water right in front of us, and making us witness to the tragedy.

The molds were made from my face, trying to stay at least a few minutes lying in that immobility, with that breathing difficulty you are forced to when your face is covered with plaster, and the mind takes you away from where you are, in an expanse of water.

110×140 cm
japanese paper, nylon thread