Quarantine Sessions - Ghosts - Acrylic on cotton paper
March 2020, I was called by a friend telling me that in Veneto, the region I live in, there were some severe cases of the then new, and here almost unknown, virus called Coronavirus - Covid19.
From then on reality and fiction started to mix up, since the virus spread up all around the world and millions of people, like me, found themselves on lock down fighting again a silent and terrible foe.
As the days went on, I kept on reading the news headlines and looking around and, stuck in my place, I kept on thinking about this whole lot we all were going through.
In my heart of hearts I am firmly convinced that in difficult situations, even the most challenging, lies an opportunity of growth, redemption and improving. I had been hearing all the time, people, celebrities, relevant people saying we had to stop and change our direction, our pace and reset our dynamics but no one really managed to stop the world and say "hold on and listen". This time we are living this and it's real. I'll take it as a wake-up call and a chance to get better. Progress can exist and must exist without annihilating human dignity, otherwise that is not progress.
During my quarantine days I tried to keep myself busy and concentrate on some works, my only way to reflect and understand. The whole output results in a small capsule collection of ideas, nostalgic reflections, dreams and experiments that, in one way or another, are deeply permeated with the burden of mixed feelings we are all experiencing. I just tried to do my best to make some of those visible.
These are the Quarantine Sessions.
Ghosts:
All of a sudden cities, small and big, have emptied out. It seemed like one of those dreams when you wake up alone and find out that all the people, those noisy, sometimes unkind and upsetting crowds, just disappeared overnight. Well, I think I'm looking forward to seeing them all again, walking the streets of my city. Even if I live like an old hermit in my studio without getting out, I feel alive because I hear people around me, out there. I hear life and I feel less alone. Cities without people showing up are dead, even if many of the local people like me are usually locked down inside by choice. This must also mean that I'm looking forward to being bothered again by them. We need to fill the piazzas again. And we will. I do hope that people who are going to rebuild this world are going to do the same, but different. Each one with his own damned character, but aware of being part of something bigger, something meaningful, something that doesn't need to be ruled but to be embraced.