STARTING POINT

The question at the basis of the project is: how can I escape from the hyper activity of modern society?

It all began with the identification and understanding of my inner landscape - so the union between the mind and the body, are thoughts and physical responses and emotional inclinations. 

By understanding the factors of this combination I was able to draw a line and gave shape and meaning to this landscape.

It’s a circle: by defining the landscape, you can creating space and by creating it you understand how to stay present and read your response to what, in your everyday life you see and feel.

RESEARCH AND NOTES

This project was one of the rare cases in which theoretical reasoning and artistic, historical and literary research arrived quite long before the practical realization. Usually for me the process starts  with creations  of sketches and first attempt at paintings and then proceeds aligned with the study, but in this case the practical part was a consequence of theoretical one.

Probably because I had so many thoughts in my head that no matter how hard I tried to transport them outside of me, no attempt was in the least satisfactory, because I didn't know how to give life to something that was so deeply rooted in me.

So I started a 360-degree research, thanks to the help of my tutors. And, once I reach this level of knowledge, the practical installation began to take shape in me quite naturally, every information and every added detail built the work.

FIRST ATTEMPTS, THE DESIGN OF THE SPACE

Clearly there were some attempts before arriving at the "final" form. I have always been sure that the work had to be lived and “habited", it was necessary to be able to physically enter a place, walk inside and observe it all around.

Initially, I approached the idea of ​​a more geometric and stable structure, like a room, but then I thought about the need for a more fluid, and "soft" space, with walls that let air and light transpire.

The yurt, you know, the typical habitation of some nomad population, has been an option for some time, but in the end I realized that it was necessary to reduce the rigid structure to a minimum to give space to the movement of the falling fabrics, the folds that form, the external factors that condition them, the complete freedom to insert details that were not impeded by a rigid and heavy structure.

And the more details I put it in, the more the landscape and the work take shape.

SENSES

I also worked a lot on the senses, I tried to understand the interaction with the body. And with great amazement, I realized that the touch, was actually fundamental for this work, and allowed me to study and use the materials, understand the texture, "feel it”. Perceiving the various differences between the materials with my hands allowed me to tailor the structure and adapt it to my plans.

MANIPULATION OF FABRICS, THE VARIOUS TECHNIQUEST

his was followed by an important manipulation of every detail inserted in the final work: all the fabrics used were modified in small or large part, I don’t exclude that maybe in 6 month the work will be completely different. Since this is a research work, the research never ends, like the inner landscape, is always in progress, and there is always something more to discover.

I wanted to include as many artistic techniques as I knew, for example sewing and knitting certainly proved to be fundamental, these ancient and meticulous practices cross the whole world, speak all languages ​​and cover all historical periods, yet often the we find them on the margins of society, in the handcraft activities but precisely such a slow and meticulous process has become part of my own process of discovering the senses.

Then, painting, a technique that I always used in my works. It makes me feel particularly free to express myself with gestures.

REFLECTION ON THE VISION OF ART

After this long journey, when I assembled the piece, found my shape and gotten in: I thought “ oh yes, I am in my nest” the nest that for the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, who have published in 1957 “The poetic of space”, it’s something perfect, an image of simplicity and rest, it’s the place where we return naturally because represent for us a memory of a lost intimacy,

So in a safe and calm environment, I can turn down the volume of the world, every shield, every defense falls, because it is molded on me, it is part of me, it’s came from me.

Some of you will think that this type of approach to the art world, is excessively poetic, and perhaps a little naive, you are right, but this is what art is for me: an expression of fear and liberation at the same time.

I took something that scared me and that conditioned me for most of my life and I exorcised it, the work took away power from fear, I gave dignity to a discomfort through art.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, during this terrible year, which saw us forcibly closed in our homes, I was able to go deepen the studies on "safe space”-in the first months I found the house a clean and relax environment, away form the madness the was happening out there, but with the prolongation of the emergency and with the increase in time spent indoors the sense of confinement and solitude took over. This led me to understand the dualism between inside and outside.

It’s necessary that the outside world continue to move and live in its frenzy and “noise" way, in order to allow the "inside", the nest, to be the place of calm and recharge and not anguish and imprisonment. One needs the other  to function, it’s a close relationship.

​*Attached at the bottom of the page you will find the thesis in full, in case you are interested in learning more about the topic